Ramdev protest evolves into a political firestorm

Opposition guns for govt head, Cong says Baba violated secret pact

A sobbing yoga guru vowed on Sunday to continue his hunger strike against corruption and blamed the Congress for a chaotic, early morning raid in which thousands of his followers were dispersed by police officers wielding nightsticks and tear gas.

Swami Ramdev had started a mass hunger strike that began on Saturday in New Delhi. But amid the tumult of the raid, Swami Ramdev was

detained by officers and later flown to Uttarakhand, where he was taken to his ashram near Hardwar. Appearing later on television, he described how he tried in vain to escape the police raid by dressing as a woman and covering his flowing black beard with white cloth.

“The government wanted to kill me,” he said. He added: “My hunger strike is not broken. I will continue. My agitation will continue.”

The unexpected developments quickly transformed what had been a quirky mixture of yoga sit-in and political protest into a political firestorm. Leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party blasted the Congress for mishandling the hunger strike and described the police action as “a shameful chapter in the democracy of the country”.

BJP chief Nitin Gadkari said the party would begin a 24-hour demonstration on Sunday night in New Delhi at Rajghat, the funeral site of Mahatma Gandhi. Meanwhile, senior BJP leader LK Advani described the police raid as “naked fascism” and called for a special session of Parliament to address governmental corruption.

“I feel prime minister Manmohan Singh and the Congress president owe an apology to the nation,” he said. But the Congress leaders were hardly apologetic and instead accused Ramdev of trying to deliberately stir up trouble as a proxy for the BJP and rightwing Hindu groups. “You cannot allow people like Ramdev to run riot in the capital,” said Congress leader Digvijay Singh, who has been outspoken in his criticism of the swami. “He was trying to incite people. Therefore, the action of the police is justified.”

Meanwhile, the Congress leaders blamed Ramdev of violating a secret deal to call off strike on Saturday evening. Last week, government ministers met with him several times to explain governmental initiatives on the issue, part of their effort to head off the hunger strike.