Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: Yoga guru Baba Ramdev on Monday lashed out at the Congress-led UPA government for “deliberately targeting” him for raising the issues of national interests.
“I have demanded that the black money, illicitly stashed in tax havens abroad, be declared as a national asset. Similarly, I have raised the issue of rising corruption in the country. By doing so perhaps I have done a big crime, as the government thinks,” he said addressing a press conference here.
“I am paying the price for raising the issues of national interest,” he added.
The anti-corruption crusader said he will continue his my fight till the last breath of his life.
“In the British-ruled India freedom fighters were put to jail and some of them were sent to gallows for fighting for their motherland. Taking a cue from the British, the UPA government is harassing the people who raise the issues of national interest,” Ramdev said.
“The government has lost its credibility. It has utterly failed to perform its basic constitutional duties,” he said.
Targeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former finance minister and present Home Minister P Chidambaram who had allegedly endorsed the faulty telecom policy introduced by former telecom minister A Raja, he said it’s time the government should come clean on the allegations.
“Will the government take action against the Prime Minister and Chidambaram?” he asked.
The yoga guru took a dig at the Congress by quoting senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar who said that the party is being run like a “circus”.
He came down heavily on the Congress leadership (without naming Rahul Gandhi and Digvijay Singh) for comparing the Mumbai attacks to those in Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan. “The government lacks political will power to curb terror,” he said.
Reacting to the CBI seeking revocation of his close aide Acharya Balkrishna`s passport alleging that it had been procured on the basis of fake degrees, the yoga guru defended his close aide saying the veracity of his degrees was proved by the statement of the headmaster of the institute where he pursued his studies.
"Headmaster of Radhakrishan Sanskrit University, where Balkrishna pursued his eduction, Acharya Naresh Chand Dwivedi has already said that his degrees are real and he studied at the institute," Ramdev said.
Alleging that there is a conspiracy by politicians to malign his image, he said, "Responsibility for giving a degree lies with the university... How Balkrishna is responsible if any fault is found in his degree? He has not done anything unconstitutional or illegal."
“Had the degrees been fake, Balkrishna would not have used these to obtain a passport, as there are many uneducated people who get their passport made without showing any degrees in support their education,” he said.
Ramdev alleged that the government is hatching a conspiracy against Ayurveda.
“Recently a Union Minister was planning to target me saying that there are steroids in the medicines prepared by us. But there is no steroid in turmeric and garlic which are used in our medicine, these materials have their natural steroids."
Ramdev and followers were driven out from the Ramlila Maidan in Delhi on June 4 midnight by a heavy contingent of police - led by Delhi Police Commissioner – while peacefully protesting on the twin issues of black money and corruption.
The Supreme Court on Monday decided to view the video footage of Ramlila crackdown, saying it should be ensured that such incidents do not recur.
The court had on June 6 taken a suo motu cognisance of the police action on the gathering of Ramdev and his followers at ramlila Maidan and had asked the Centre and Delhi Police to explain why it resorted to such a drastic step in the middle of the night.
With PTI inputs
