The Congress leader in the Rajya Sabha, L. Hanumanthaiah, on Tuesday questioned why the government had decided to accord “institution of national importance” status to Gujarat institutions while ignoring states like Kerala and Karnataka that have a rich ayurvedic tradition.

“The government is only interested in Gujarat and I feel... because the Prime Minister is from Gujarat. So they wanted to have an ayurveda national importance institute there, though there are no practitioners in Gujarat like (in) Kerala, Karnataka and West Bengal,” Hanumanthaiah, who hails from Karnataka, said when the government introduced in the Rajya Sabha the Institute of Teaching and Research in Ayurveda Bill, 2020.

The bill, which had been approved in the last session, seeks to grant “institution of national importance” status to an institution that will be formed by merging three ayurveda institutes in Gujarat’s Jamnagar.

The tag bestows greater autonomy to institutions in making academic decisions and expanding. IITs, IIMs and AIIMS enjoy the status.

“Kerala is number one in ayurveda. Kottakkal Ayurveda is very famous. People from across the world come to Kerala for treatment. There is a research institute in Thiruvananthapuram which is 131 years old, whereas the Jamgnagar institute was started in 1952. My question is why a Kerala institute has not been given INI status,” Hanumanthaiah said.

“What is the reason, we must know. My colleagues from Gujarat also agree with this,” he added.

The Government Ayurveda College in Kerala capital Thiruvananthapuram was established in 1889.

The institute to be granted “institution of national importance” status will be a conglomeration of the Institute for Post Graduate Teaching and Research in Ayurveda, Shree Gulabkunverba Ayurved Mahavidyalaya and the Indian Institute of Ayurvedic Pharmaceutical Sciences. The merged institution will be named Institute of Teaching and Research in Ayurveda, Jamnagar.