Ramaswami: The world is gripped with the Novel Coronavirus pandemic, a health crisis of mammoth proportions. Medical and administrative steps are being taken, but what will make the battle against this threat more difficult to deal with is the promotion of faith-based cures. This is being done by the ruling dispensation and its myriad associates, for whom ancient Indian practices had all the ingredients we need to deal with human calamities. Two disturbing examples need to be deliberated to understand the intensity of blind practices which have become the undercurrent of our social life in recent times.