Amidst loud chants of Vande Mataram and Bharat Mata ki jai, Yoga guru Baba Ramdev announced his decision to launch the satyagrah against corruption from Saturday is final. Ramdev asked his followers to join him in the fast till the date the government conceded to all demands that aim to curb corruption and bring back black money to the country.
He claimed that his agitation was neither “politically motivated or communal” nor he has any “underground agenda” as was being portrayed by some sections. “We will not revolt against any political party but we will peacefully observe a hunger strike until all our demands are met. We are here for the well-being of 100 crore people of India,” Ramdev said.
“We have come here to kill Ravan present in the form of corruption. We will not allow this movement to turn violent, but if the government tries to derail it we will not tolerate it,” he said.
While claiming that today’s talks with the government were fruitful he demanded that the government come out with a time frame to address all the issues being taken up by him. “The government has in-principle given its approval to our demand that cases of corruption should be tried in fast track courts and a time frame of one year should be fixed for delivering judgement in these cases,” he stated. The yoga guru pointed out that though a demand for death sentence was put before the government for people convicted of corruption, “the government is only willing to look at a sentence of life imprisonment,” he said.
Ramdev claimed that HRD minister Kapil Sibal has assured him that the government approved of confiscation of ill-gotten wealth from the corrupt and that it was preparing a Public Service Guarantee Bill with a promise to seek Parliamentary ratification within one year. He asked his supporters to thank the government as it had fully accepted their demand of conducting entrance tests to all agricultural universities.