Arun Jaitley, Bharatiya Janata Party leader in the Rajya Sabha, compared Baba Ramdev to Mahatma Gandhi at the yoga guru’s Sankalp Poorti Mahotsav (pledge fulfilment festival) at Talkatora Stadium here on Sunday. Mr. Jaitley and several other party leaders attended the event. Ramdev had supported the BJP campaign for making Narendra Modi Prime Minister, and the event was held to celebrate the victory of his campaign, which he called a Dharma Yuddh .
“Baba Ramdev is like Mahatma Gandhi and Jayprakash Narayan, who strived for regime change, yet stayed away from power ... He is multi-faceted like Mahatma Gandhi. He has brought about changes in Yoga, Ayurveda, economics and politics,” Mr. Jaitley said.
BJP president Rajnath Singh said: “I bow to the workers of [Ramdev’s] Bharat Swabhiman Nyas for their contribution to this grand change ... Under Narendra Modi, we will make India an economic power and saints like Ramdev ji will make it a spiritual power.”
Meenakshi Lekhi, party leader, said that she could win the election because of the work of Ramdev’s supporters. “I assure Ramdev ji that India’s money will be spent honestly for the people. We have a failed system because of ‘Adharma’ [immorality]. Our government will change this,” she said.
Ramdev said that his national duty was over after installing Mr. Modi as Prime Minister and he would now return to his ashram in Haridwar.
Satyapal Singh, Udit Raj, V.K. Singh, Maheish Girri and Babul Supriyo, newly elected MPs, participated.
