Yoga guru Baba Ramdev, who is on an indefinite hungerstrike against black money and corruption, on Thursday claimed that his four trusts are worth over `1,100 crores. He also mentioned that everything in the four trusts, which he heads, was in order.
Making public the audited reports of the four trusts — Patanjali Yoga Peeth, Bharat Swabhiman Swabhiman, Divya Yog Mandir Trust and Acharyakul Shiksha Sansthan — in Hardwar, Baba Ramdev also put the details on his website.
According to the audit reports, the capital involving the four trusts run by him totalled `426.19 crores, while the expenditure incurred on them amounted to `751.02 crores.
Speaking to the media in Baba Ramdev’s presence in Hardwar, his close aide Acharya Balakrishna said: “We believe in transparency in work and in financial matters. There is a proper audit of all our firms and companies. As per rules, the government renews our trusts after every two years only when our audits are clean. What has come and what has gone, who has given it and how was it spent, is all maintained in the audited report.”
Under pressure from AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh and other Congress leaders, who demanded a thorough probe into Baba Ramdev’s financial deals in the past five years, the yoga guru was forced to make his assets and liabilities public.
After hearing that Baba Ramdev had declared his assets and liabilities, Mr Singh took a jibe at him suggesting that the yoga guru should declare his assets “correctly”. Said Mr Singh: “Let him declare the assets, but you should remind him (to do so) correctly.”
Baba Ramdev’s aide, however, did not give details of the companies associated with the yoga guru, saying this could be obtained easily from the registrar of companies under the Right to Information Act. “We pay tax as per government norms. TDS is deducted. We follow all the rules. Details of all our associate companies can be taken from the registrar of companies and from the government under the RTI Act. Tax details and balance sheets of trusts have been put on the website,” he said.
While the Divya Yoga Mandir trust has capital of `249.63 crores, the Patanjali Yoga Peeth trust has `164.80 crores, the Bharat Swabhiman trust `9.97 crores and the Acharyakul Shiksha Sansthan `1.79 crore — all totalling `426.19 crores. The expenditure outlined for these trusts since their inception totalled `751.02 crores.