Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: Congress top brass, including
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party chief Sonia Gandhi,
are expected to deliberate, Thursday, on the situation arising out
of yoga guru Ramdev's plans to go on a hunger strike on the
issue of black money here from June four.
A meeting of the Congress Core Group headed by Gandhi
has begun at PM’s residence, 7 Race Course Road, in the backdrop of apparent
differences between the party and the government over the way
the issue needed to be tackled.
The Core Group, which generally meets on Friday is
meeting a day ahead, reflecting the concern in the party and
the government over Ramdev's plans.
Top Congress leaders and senior ministers, including
Pranab Mukherjee, A K Antony, P Chidambaram and Political
Secertary to Congress chief Ahmed Patel are part of the group
which decides on major policy issues.
Importantly, the Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi held separate talks before the meeting of the entire Core Group.
Meanwhile, Baba Ramdev has cancelled a
press conference scheduled this evening in view of "serious
dialogue" with government.
His aides notified the media about the cancellation of
the press conference at Ramlila Maidan, where he is to sit on
fast from Saturday, saying the yoga guru would update the
media about "conclusive" outcome tomorrow.
Earlier in the day, Ramdev held a meeting with his
close associates here to finalise the strategy ahead of his
proposed June 4 hunger strike on black money issue and talks
with the government which wants him to call off the agitation.
The yoga guru maintained that he will go ahead with
the protest from June four.
A meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Political
Affairs was held a few days back to discuss Ramdev's fast and
Singh had also written a letter to the yoga guru asking him
not to go ahead with the fast, promising him to find a
"practical and pragmatic" solution to tackle the issue of
corruption.
Congress has distanced itself from the government's
unprecedented step of sending four senior ministers to receive
Ramdev at the airport here in a bid to persuade him not to go
ahead with the protest saying it was "unnecessary" and the
party has "nothing to do" with it.
"The party is not at all related to this entire
exercise from here to the airport (ministers going to the
airport to receive the Yoga Guru)," top sources in the Congress
said.
With PTI inputs
First Published: Thursday, June 02, 2011, 16:57