By IANS,
New Delhi : Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal and their two other cabinet colleagues met yoga guru Baba Ramdev at the Delhi airport Wednesday in a bid to persuade him to call off his planned fast from Saturday against corruption and black money stashed abroad, activists in the movement said.
“We (UPA ministers) met Baba Ramdev just after 1 p.m…the conversation was carried on for almost two and a half hours. During the conversation, Swami Ramdevji raised a broad range of very important and significant national issues,” Sibal told reporters after the meeting.
“We listened to him. We also prima facie responded to him and we will meet each other and have another dialogue in the next couple of days,” he said.
“I’m sure that as we are a responsive government, we will take all those issues which were raised and this is all I have to say as of now,” he added.
Besides Mukherjee and Sibal, Parliamentary Affairs Minister P.K. Bansal and Tourism Minister Subodh Kant Sahay also met the yoga guru at the airport.
Top officials, among them Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar, were also part of the government team.
The initial plan was for Mukherjee to meet Ramdev at the former’s North Block office. However, he rushed to the airport to meet Ramdev, who arrived around noon from Madhya Pradesh.
Activists in the Ramdev movement said there was “no plan as of now” to drop the fast to be staged at the spacious Ramlila Ground in the national capital.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had sent a letter to Baba Ramdev Tuesday evening, urging him to call off the fast.
The yoga guru had announced the fast demanding urgent government action to recover the black money stashed away in foreign banks.
Meanwhile, hectic preparations were in progress at the Ramlila ground for Saturday’s fast, including the erection of a huge tent to accommodate 20,000 people.