Calling Ramdev’s agitation against graft as a “people’s struggle”, Communist Party of India (CPI) today said the government should concede to his demands.
“I support his (Ramdev’s) demand. I think government should concede whether he is a saint or not. It is not his demand alone. It is demand of the lakhs of workers of the country,” Member of Parliament and General Secretary of All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) Gurudas Dasgupta said here on the sidelines of a day-long conference here.
“Ramdev is a religious leader. He is on fast from today. The demand he is raising, I support that,” Mr. Gupta said.
He further said that corruption has reached to a critical point in the country and there has to be constitutional and administrative steps to curb it, particularly in high places.
“Today because he is Baba Ramdev, government seems to be in jitters. But few months back there were lakhs of workers parading the streets of Delhi against corruption and price rise,” he said.
“I think struggle against corruption is a national one. It does not belong to anybody. It belongs to the whole of nation and nation is united on this,” he said.
To a question about the Baba getting into the limelight in the name of a war against corruption, Mr. Gupta said, “nobody can take the limelight; neither Ramdev nor Anna Hazare. It is after all the people’s struggle against corruption that is in the limelight and that is an issue for the nation”.
Referring to a question about union ministers visit to Baba Ramdev, Mr. Gupta said, “it is not correct to say if Ramdev sits there for hunger strike and if four ministers go there with folded hands, he will be in the limelight”.
To a question about RSS support to Baba, the CPI leader said “it is their choice if RSS and BJP support his demand. The problem of corruption is not only affecting Congress but equally to BJP”.
Replying to a question on the Baba taking on Parliament, he said “if a religious leader wants to take on Parliament, it is his choice, we should not feel jealous about it”.
Mr. Gupta said “I only think that it is the government which is responsible for this. Price rise, corruption, disparity in society, job losses, 51 per cent people do not have two meals a day and a family is constructing a palace at a cost of Rs. 8,000 crores in Mumbai, these are all issues that contribute to such a struggle”.
“If anybody is destabilising the country, it is the present government and its policies,” he said.
Maintaining that Baba Ramdev has a right to struggle against corruption, he said anybody can raise the demand to fight against the corruption.
