Crackdown a stigma on democracy: yoga guru

Clad in his trademark saffron robe, yoga guru Baba Ramdev said yesterday that the manner in which the police cracked down on his protest in New Delhi was a “stigma” on Indian democracy.“Had they requested us to cancel our fast as the permission to hold the fast in the ground was cancelled, we would have done that. But the way they manhandled me and the people is a stigma on Indian democracy,” said Ramdev. Rubbishing the police claims that Ramdev faced threat to life, he said: “This is a blatant lie that I was under any kind of threat.” Earlier in the day, reaching his ashram here after being forcefully evicted from the Ramlila Ground in a midnight police raid, a visibly shaken Ramdev accused the government of plotting against him and trying to get him killed.“They wanted to kidnap me and kill me, or send me somewhere,” the yoga guru said at his first press conference of the day, during which he wore a white robe.He termed the police action inhuman and barbaric.“Yesterday at the Ramlila Maidan, about 1 lakh (100,000) people felt the force of the police. The scenario was hurtful and barbaric,” he said. “My fast has not ended,” he said about the hunger strike against corruption which he had launched on Saturday morning against black money stashed away in foreign tax havens and corruption.Nursing a sore throat and at times teary-eyed, Ramdev said: “Despite my pleadings, the police did not leave women and children but attacked them.“No other nation would have shown this much of roughness against its citizens. Such situations were not witnessed even during the Emergency period (1975-77). One can compare it with the Jallianwala Bagh massacre,” he said.He also accused the government and Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal of cheating him.“The government is betraying us and creating a conspiracy against us. The government said that by the end of June 6, all our demands will be accepted and then you can end your fast and protest. We were forced to write this (letter) and were told it will be presented to the prime minister. “Kapil Sibal is a liar and a cunning person, he cheated and misled us,” he said, adding that he was forced into signing the letter. Sibal had made public a handwritten note in which Ramdev had agreed to end his fast in two days.Ramdev also attacked Congress Party chief Sonia Gandhi.“I thought she is not born in this country but is the daughter-in-law of this country. But by ordering attack on one lakh people, she proved she does not love the people (of this country),” he said.