A defiant Baba Ramdev vows to continue fasting against graft

Baba Ramdev, India's crusading antigraft yoga guru, has accused the government of betraying him and trying to kill him after Delhi Police descended in large numbers on the Ramlila Grounds in the early hours of June 5, 2011 to forcibly evict him.

After reaching his ashram in the holy city of Haridwar, Ramdev, who plans to launch a political party to contest the 2014 general election, vowed, "My hunger strike has not ended. I will continue fasting." The yoga guru began his hunger strike against graft with tens of thousands of followers in New Delhi and in less than 24 hours into the fast, police used teargas and batons to break up the rally. Ramdev jumped from a three-meter-high podium and tried to escape disguised as a woman. After being served with an externment order that barred him entry into the capital for a fortnight, he was bundled into a police van before dawn and flown to Haridwar, the hub of his organization, in a small plane.

He alleged the police crackdown was a plan to kill him and that is the reason why he had to hide. "The police were firing bullets. I was hiding there because police had planned to kill me."

Ramdev also alleged that one of his woman supporters was paralyzed in the brutality and her condition was still critical. "One of our woman supporters is paralyzed in police brutality she is in ICU." Media reported that more than 60 people were injured in the pre-dawn raid where his followers, from poor villagers to foreign tourists and civil servants, had gathered. The yoga guru rubbished Delhi police statement regarding a terror alert at Ramlila Ground saying that it was a lie and if it were true then the government should have informed him. "Delhi police is lying about the terror attack, if there was anything like this why government did not tell me in the evening when talks were going on this is all false. I am going back to protest today.'

Special Commissioner (Law and Order) Dharmendra Kumar denied that police had used batons on protestors but admitted that teargas shells were lobbed to disperse them after being attacked with bricks, flower pots and sticks.

Giving details of the operation that has come under sharp criticism, Kumar said police had requested Ramdev to call off his agitation as the permission was withdrawn. Had the yoga guru cooperated and come out "gracefully," the "skirmishes and stampede" which resulted in injuries could have been avoided.

Kumar claimed that the ‘violence unleashed by Ramdev's followers' were premeditated as bricks and baseball bats were stocked behind the stage and other places in the ground. He said police recovered a number of baseball bats from there. The first political fallout of Baba Ramdev's dramatic eviction was the decision of civil society activists led by Anna Hazare to boycott meeting of the Joint Drafting Committee on Lokpal and the threat to resume the agitation in Jantar Mantar.

BJP and chief ministers Mayawati, Nitish Kumar, Prakash Singh Badal and Naveen Patnaik and former chief ministers Mulayam Singh Yadav and Chandrababu Naidu have also launched sharply critical attacks on the government action. BJP President Nitin Gadkari said, "This government has lost the right to rule," and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan termed the incident as "extremely barbaric. It is worse than the medieval ages. People have been beaten up including women and children. I am very hurt and upset."

BJP's key ally Nitish Kumar, who kept Narendra Modi out of Bihar, also hit out. "The Centre owes an explanation on the issue. It is a major blow to democracy and an attack on the democratic rights of the people... it is also an attack on the fundamental rights of the citizens."

Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav said, "The Central government has lost mental balance. Some politicians in Congress do not have the manners how to address someone. They called Ramdev a thug. I think the party president should tell them how to speak in public."

But the government and the Congress came out in strong defense of the decision to evict the 46-year-old yoga guru and legions of his followers.

The party accused him of going back on his word of withdrawing his fast after reaching an understanding on the issue of measures to bring back black money stashed abroad.

Congress party general secretary Digvijay Singh called Ramdev a "fraud" and demanded an inquiry into the "thousands of crores of rupees" of property said to be owned by Baba Ramdev.

He also accused the yoga guru of inciting people. "Now you can't allow people like Ramdev to run riot in a capital like Delhi. Some laws, some rules have to be followed," Singh said. "And where as he has taken permission for yogic shivir (camp), what was he doing there?...he was trying to agitate people."

- [ BY ANU SHARMA ]