The Delhi police and the Rapid Action Force (RAF) resorted to teargas and lathi-charge to disperse the 80,000 and more crowd and whisked away Ramdev.
Sunday morning created enough flutter across the country’s political opposition, after the post-midnight drama on Saturday/Sunday at the Ramlila ground. The Delhi police and the Rapid Action Force (RAF) resorted to teargas and lathi-charge to disperse the 80,000 and more crowd and whisked away Baba Ramdev.
TV footage showing the yoga guru jumping from the dais and riding on the shoulder of one of his followers and the people — many of them old people and women — running helter-skelter showed the UPA government using brute force to disperse the crowd. The UPA government suffered one more blow to its battered and tattered image even as the police did their job.
Ramdev had sought permission from Delhi police to hold a yoga camp from 8am to 2pm and to restrict the crowd to 5,000 people. But the yoga camp became the political platform for Ramdev to hector the government on black money and corruption. According to Delhi's laws Ramlila ground cannot be used for a political function. For that there is the Jantar Mantar, Delhi's Hyde Park. In spite of this, it was the government that was in the dock for its political sins, and Ramdev garnered support from the entire opposition.
Through the day, the government kept an uneasy slience. Union minister Kapil Sibal and Subodh Kant Sahay, who dealt with Ramdev issued brief statements that the yoga teacher broke his promises and that the administration’s action to break the camp was justified.
It was both confused and unconvincing even as Sibal said in a sneering tone that the yoga teacher should have stuck to teaching yoga postures or asanas and should not have tried to indulge in political asanas — this after two days of hectic parleying with the man. The media was kept on tenterhooks till late Sunday evening that home minister P Chidambaram would make a statement. But there was no sign. It seemed that the government was running for cover.
While Congress leader Digvijay Singh once again attacked Ramdev for being a ‘thug’ and a ‘cheat’, who short-changed not only the naïve UPA government but also the man who gave him shelter in Delhi and the man who taught him yoga. He would not however comment on the government's action saying it was for the government to speak.
BJP, BSP and leader of BJD Naveen Patnaik, and SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav.
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