While he is still expected to announce his complete future strategy about his campaign against black money and corruption, yoga guru Baba Ramdev on Saturday gave ample indication about his plans: he intends to raise and train 10 lakh “core” volunteers and about one crore volunteers in all to bring about a Mahakranti (revolution) in the country. The volunteers, he has said, will go through three to six months of “training” at Hardwar.
“We waited till Saturday for any response from the government but now a “Mahakranti” will rise from Ramlila Maidan. We follow the peaceful ideology of Gandhiji but we also follow the path of revolution,” the yoga guru said, while addressing the thinning crowd of his supporters.
On the last day of his three-day “symbolic” fast, he said it would be “disgraceful” if “some dishonest person” were to hoist a tricolour.
“If a person with clean hands hoists the tricolour, it will raise the country’s prestige. It will really be a disgrace if some dishonest person hoists the national flag. It would be hypocrisy if you have the tricolour in your hand but not in the heart,” he said.
Baba Ramdev stepped up his criticism of the Central government after it did not respond to his three-day ultimatum, which ended on Saturday evening, to act on his demands that included passing of the Lokpal Bill in the ongoing session of Parliament and bringing back the black money stashed abroad.
Claiming to have the support of “hundreds” of Members of Parliament (MPs), he vowed to soon approach the President with millions of support letters from MPs and the public to press his demands.
“We are going to meet the President with the support letters of 225 MPs and more 1.25 lakh gram sabhas. We will urge him to pressure the government to take swift action on our demands.”
‘Congress MPs back me’
Claiming to have the support of several Congress MPs too, he said they were not coming out openly for fear of being suspended from the party.
“The Congress MPs, who support our campaign, told me they cannot come out in public as it would jeopardise their political career.”
The yoga guru said it was imperative for the government to respond to the call of millions of people across the country even if it wanted to ignore his call.
