Baba Ramdev should maintain distance from BJP, RSS: Harish Rawat

Yoga guru Baba Ramdev should distance himself from the communal forces represented by BJP and its ideological fountainhead RSS, minister of state for food processing Harish Rawat said today.

 "The government is not opposed to Swami Ramdev's campaign on black money, but he should know that bringing the money stashed away in foreign lands takes time," Rawat told reporters on the sidelines of a Food Processing event here.

"Baba (Ramdev) should first maintain distance from communal forces like BJP and Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh (RSS) and also explain Rs 1,100-1,200 crore annual turnover that his company has," Rawat said.

He praised Delhi police in evacuating the supporters of Ramdev from the Ramlila grounds with minimum use of force.

"Delhi Police has done a commendable job in clearing the people from the Ramlila grounds with the minimum use of force though the government considers people getting injured in the operation as unfortunate," Rawat said.

Considering that at that moment there were around 30,000-40,000 people in the ground, police did a good job in swiftly clearing the grounds with least use of force," Rawat, a senior Congress leader from Uttarakhand, added.

Ramdev's Patanjali Yogapeeth is also based at Haridwar in the hill state of Uttarakhand.