Ramdev targets Congress as Govt ignores 'ultimatum'

028833-01-02.jpg.crop_display.jpg

With government ignoring his ultimatum, yoga guru Ramdev on Sunday targeted the Congress asking people to vote out parties which do not support his demands on blackmoney and corruption and hinted at a 'jail bharo' agitation.

He did not announce the next course of action on the fourth day of his fast as declared earlier and deferred it till Monday but said his 'fast will end in jail' while asking his supporters whether they were ready to go to prisons for the 'big revolution starting on Monday'.

As his deadline till this evening after shooting off a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expired, Ramdev took on the Congress alleging that the ruling party may be shying away from action as the blackmoney stashed abroad may be that of its leaders and people close to it.

"What is the danger that Congress perceives in bringing back blackmoney or declaring it national asset, if they do not own it?" he asked.

"We will now go from village to village telling them, may be Congress people own this blackmoney and so they do not want to declare it national asset. No, it is not that we feel so, they have proved it by not taking action," he said.

Ramdev also alleged that Congress was not enacting Lokpal bill because it fears that 90 per cent of its ministers will land in jail if a strong anti-corruption law is in place.

He said people will have to vote for those parties which support their demands and not elect those who do not support them.

Though he was to announce his plans on Saturday evening, Ramdev has been extending his deadline and deferring announcement of his next course of action.

He had said last evening that he will announce his strategy this morning but he again deferred it for Monday.

The day saw former Army Chief V.K. Singh and erstwhile Team Anna member Kiran Bedi extending support to him by joining his protest.

"We are not digging the grave of Congress. They are doing it by themselves. We will tell whom to vote and whom not to vote in 2014 elections. This job has to be done in a tactical way," he said.

"May be we may not have to wait till 2014 as they may go in 2013 itself.... We also know who should be defeated in the next elections..., Time will tell who will remain in power," Ramdev said, adding the 'rituals of death' of this government will start from Monday.

He said Congress came up with slogan 'Garibi Hatao' (remove poverty) but they ended up increasing poverty and removing poor people from the country.

Defending his attack on Congress, Ramdev said the party is responsible for what happened to the country as it was in power for a long period and cannot escape responsibility.

He said some people have asked him not to go on protest and go for a compromise.

"I told them we will not compromise on our ideology and ethics...," he said, adding people in power have become "deaf" to the cries of the common man.

Earlier in the day, Ramdev said he was ready to continue his fast till a decision on his demands were taken.

"The fast will not end on Sunday. When it will end, I will tell you on Monday," he said.

Ramdev also targeted the Prime Minister saying he has to show political honesty and political will on the matter. He alleged that Singh did not honour the promise on declaring black money a national asset or taking steps to bring back black money stashed away abroad.

"When UPA came to power, the Prime Minister promised that black money will be brought back in 100 days. Many such 100 days have gone by but black money is still stashed in tax havens abroad," he claimed.

"You are being hailed as an honest person. We don't doubt your personal honesty. But you will have to show political honesty and political duty. If you do not do your duty, then there will be a question mark on your political honesty," Ramdev said.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/180271" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: &lt;a&gt; &lt;em&gt; &lt;strong&gt; &lt;cite&gt; &lt;code&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;ol&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;dl&gt; &lt;dt&gt; &lt;dd&gt;</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-245755ba3f32800ca1121bf0f47ad132" value="form-245755ba3f32800ca1121bf0f47ad132" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="80431783" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

I want to begin with a little story that was told to me by a leading executive at Aptech. He was exercising in a gym with a lot of younger people.

Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen didn’t make the cut. Neither did Shaji Karun’s Piravi, which bagged 31 international awards.