By IANS,
Dehradun: Yoga guru Baba Ramdev Sunday finally ended his nine-day fast against corruption and vowed to pursue his campaign. But the Congress still denounced him as a “fake baba”.
Within hours of Ramdev sipping fruit juice at a hospital here on the frantic appeals of spiritual leaders like Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Congress general secretary B.K. Hariprasad dubbed him a fraud.
“He is a ‘dhongi (fake) baba’. He should tell people from where he got his Rs.1,100 crore,” Hariprasad said in Bangalore, referring to the financial empires Ramdev reportedly presides over.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the Art of Living founder who had been talking to Ramdev for some days, was among those who played a key role in persuading the Haridwar-based yoga guru to give up his fast.
“Baba Ramdev has ended his fast. He has taken (fruit) juice,” he said after meeting him for a third time. He said the hunger strike ended in the presence of religious and spiritual leaders.
The 46-year-old Ramdev’s trusted aide, Acharaya Balakrishna, said that though he was ending his fast the yoga guru would continue with his drive against mounting corruption and black money.
“I take this resolution to lead this ‘satyagraha’ till the last breath of my life,” Balakrishna quoted Ramdev as saying.
Digvijay Singh, the most vocal critic of Ramdev in the Congress, went on the offensive yet again, demanding a probe into alleged money laundering by his trust.
In signs that the government was beginning to get tired of the anti-corruption crusaders, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee alleged in Kolkata that civil society activists were undermining democratic institutions.
Even as Ramdev’s supporters outside the Dehradun hospital celebrated his calling off the fast by raising slogans hailing him, others used the opportunity to lash out at the government.
“We will continue our sit-ins to support him,” Ajay Bhadauria, a senior member of the yoga guru’s Bharat Swabhiman Trust (BST), told reporters in Lucknow.
While some saffron-clad Hindu religious leaders vowed to join hands in the anti-corruption campaign, Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy took pot shots at Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Describing the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government as “monstrous”, Swamy said that Ramdev’s fast was “successful”. “The fight against corruption will continue.”
Sunday’s development began June 1 when Ramdev flew into Delhi in a private jet and got a red carpet welcome at the airport, with four ministers led by Mukherjee urging him not to go on fast.
But Ramdev refused to accept their promises and launched a hunger strike June 4 at the Ramlila ground in Delhi. The government ordered a midnight crackdown, scattering his supporters and sending him packing from Delhi.
With Ramdev back at his ashram in Haridwar, government and Congress leaders denounced him without relent. He was linked with the RSS and BJP.
As Ramdev’s condition began to show concern, he was moved into the Himalayan Institute of Medical Sciences here Friday.
Although doctors said Sunday that his condition was stable, he would not be discharged immediately.
Since morning, a host of political leaders, including Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal, former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala and religious leaders like Murari Bapu, called on Ramdev.
With the Congress taking a vocally anti-Ramdev stand from the time he was forced out of Delhi by police after midnight June 4, Balakrishna sought to underline that the anti-corruption campaign was not “against any party or person in particular”.
After Ramdev ended his fast, Congress leader Shakeel Ahmad attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
He said the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) “must be sad and wondering why Baba did not perish as they would have gained huge political mileage out of the issue”.