Kolkata: Yoga guru Baba Ramdev on Wednesday was critical of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram's statement in Bangalore saying "I think that a minister who can give such a statement only drinks mineral water and eats packed food.
"And, he thinks that the whole of India drinks mineral water and have pizza, burger and icecream. The majority of the people, on the other hand, have to struggle for food," Ramdev told reporters here.
Chidambaram had said "Sometimes, and I have written about this once, we are prepared to pay fifteen rupees for a bottle of water but we will not bear one rupee increase in the price of a kilo of wheat or a kilo of rice."
On his proposed agitation in New Delhi from August 9, Ramdev said that the protests would go on as long as the demands were not met.
"Anna will also be with us on 9th. If they accept our demands we will thank them. But if they don’t accept our demands then this agitation will go on for an indefinite period in Delhi. We will also take it to the villages."
He also threatened to ask the people not to vote for the UPA government if it failed to accept his demands on curbing corruption and bringing back black money stashed abroad.
"Till the time it affects the elections, the government doesn?t listen. Therefore, we will call for a political and social boycott of the ruling party. It would mean not giving them votes and not going to their programmes and break all relations with them," Ramdev said.
Asked which political party he would support, he said he was ready to support any which provided corruption-free and efficient governance. "Time might form a new alternative in the Indian political system."
Confident that he would get permission from the authorities to launch his agitation, he said the Supreme Court has said that he and his Bharat Swabhiman Trust had the right to protest for a cause.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, July 11, 2012, 23:20