As the Opposition and the civil society members continued to flay the government for the midnight crackdown on Baba Ramdev at Ramlila Grounds here, Union home minister P. Chidambaram said that the yoga guru was aware that action would be taken if he continued with his fast unto death.
Mr Chidambaram said that Baba Ramdev was told much in advance that if he went for a fast unto death, the government would deny him permission and he would be told to move out of Delhi. That decision was not enforced earlier because the government was engaged in a dialogue, he said.
“Finally when talks failed and Ramdev went back on his words, the police was told to enforce the decision,” the home minister told the media.
He then went on to give a detailed history of Ramdev’s RSS links and how the agitation was planned. “I think you should know who is behind Ramdev,” Mr Chidambaram said.
“On April 2, the RSS announced the formation of an anti-corruption front with Ramdev as its patron and K. Govindacharya as its convenor, on May 12, the ABVP, which is the student front organisation of RSS, floated a new organisation called the Youth Against Corruption and publicly declared that it would coordinate with Ramdev,” Mr Chidambaram disclosed.
“On May 28, VHP leader Ashok Singhal had issued a similar circular and a number of people belonging to the RSS and ABVP outfits were closely working with Ramdev,” Mr Chidambaram said.
He also criticised the civil society members for challenging finance minister Pranab Mukherjee to a television debate on corruption. “When someone challenges the finance minister to a debate on television, he misses the fact that debate takes place in Parliament and parliamentary debates are televised and voters watch parliamentary debates and exercise their franchise from time-to-time,” he said.