Members of the Mahila Patanjali Yog Samithi and Bharath Swabhiman trust participate in a rally in support of Baba Ramdev’s hunger strike in Hyderabad yesterday
Agencies/Dehradun/New Delhi

The condition of yoga guru Baba Ramdev, who was admitted to hospital after his health deteriorated following a week-long anti-corruption hunger strike, was stable but weak, an aide and doctors said yesterday.
Ramdev, 46, went on a hunger strike on June 4 to demand anti-corruption measures, including the repatriation of money held illegally by Indians in foreign banks.
His protest in New Delhi was broken up by police that night, and the popular guru was taken to his hermitage in Hardwar, where he continued his fast.
Ramdev was ordered hospitalised on Friday by local officials in the northern hill state of Uttarakhand, where his hermitage is located.
Ramdev was being treated in the intensive care unit of the Jolly Grant Hospital in Uttarakhand’s capital, Dehradun, near Haridwar. He was being given a saline drip and his condition was stable although his blood pressure was low, the guru’s spokesman S K Tijarawala said.
Meanwhile, fresh efforts were made by political and spiritual leaders to urge the yoga guru to call off his eight-day-old fast.
Spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar met Ramdev in the hospital for the second day yesterday though the government was at pains to clarify that it had made “no backdoor” attempts to talk to the yoga guru.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), meanwhile, spared no attack on the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) for the June 4 crackdown on Ramdev’s supporters in New Delhi’s Ramlila Ground.
The BJP also demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the police action at the Ramlila Ground, in which several people were injured.
Deepak Goyal, a doctor at the Jolly Grant Hospital where Ramdev is admitted, said the guru was stable but weak.
“His condition is stable. Last night there was a sudden fall in his parameters but it was controlled through treatment. All parameters are under control now,” he told reporters.
Goyal, however, added that Ramdev is having “problems in sitting and speaking, and he has weakness.”
The condition of Acharya Balakrishna, a close aide of Ramdev who is also on fast, is also stable, the doctor said.
He clarified that Ramdev had not taken any food orally so far, but was given a drip of saline, glucose and vitamins.
After meeting Ramdev in hospital, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said the yoga guru was adamant on continuing his fast.
“He is adamant that he will continue his fast. If he is adamant, I am also adamant that I will stay here as long as it takes for him to give up his fast,” he told reporters.
The Art of Living founder clarified that the central government had not asked him to negotiate with Ramdev for ending his fast.
Denying any “backdoor” talks with Ramdev, federal Law Minister M Veerappa Moily said in Bangalore: “There is no backdoor or open door talks with anyone. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar spoke to me from Berlin and also upon his return to the country and asked me what is happening. He expressed his concern over what is happening and said he would speak to Ramdev.”
Moily said he had given Sri Sri permission to cite his name during talks with Ramdev.
In Lucknow, Congress leader P L Punia said Ramdev’s fast against corruption has now lost its significance.
Chairman of the Scheduled Castes Commission, Punia said: “What Ramdev is now doing has no significance. His fast has no meaning now as his demands have been accepted by the central government. Now he should call off his fast.”
The BJP has said any deterioration in Ramdev’s health would become a national issue.
Ramdev’s protest is part of a campaign by civil society groups to demand government accountability after a series of corruption scandals have rocked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government in recent months, including the 2008 sale of mobile telephone licences that was estimated to have caused a potential loss of $40bn to the exchequer.