Ramdev returns to Delhi, says he is not a mask for BJP or RSS

PTI

New Delhi, 26 June 2011: Returning to Delhi three weeks after the Ramlila crackdown, yoga guru Baba Ramdev on Sunday attacked the government claiming that it has no will to fight corruption or create a Lokpal to check the menace.

 

Ramdev said he would continue his fight against corruption alongside “anybody from any party, any religion” willing to fight the menace but he did not make it clear whether he would join Anna Hazare on August 16 when the latter re-launches his campaign for a strong Lokpal.

 

Holding that he was “not a mask” for BJP or RSS, he asked why Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wrote a letter to him and four ministers, including Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, drove to airport to meet him “if I was communal or a naxal or a terrorist”.

 

“Government does not want to create a Lokpal,” he said addressing a press conference here after meeting Raj Bala, who was grievously injured in the June five pre-dawn police crackdown at Ramlila Maidan on his supporters, at a hospital and dared the government to “search” his institutions for black money and declare it as national asset.

 

 

“Sarkar pehle bhrashtachari thi, abh woh atyachari bhi ho gayi. (The government was indulging in corruption earlier. Now it is indulging in atrocities),” he said, adding, “ this government has no will to fight corruption.”

 

The yoga guru alleged that the government was muzzling voices of those who talk about black money or tell the truth.

 

Terming the crackdown in Ramlila Maidan as “murder of democracy”, he alleged it was aimed at eliminating him and that there were “attempts to rape women” by drunk men during the police action.

 

However, Ramdev did not throw any light on his next move as part of his anti-corruption campaign. He said he would launch a free housing scheme in Haridwar on July one followed by another programme on August four for empowering villages.

 

Meets Raj Bala

 

Ramdev reached the capital from Haridwar by road this afternoon and straight away headed to G. B. Pant Hospital in central Delhi to visit Raj Bala.

 

He met Bala in the Intensive Care Unit. He left the hospital around 3 pm.

 

A large number of his supporters had gathered outside the hospital but were prevented by police from entering the Unit. Sources said police was keeping a close watch on the movement of the yoga guru.