For three days from Thursday, June 9, Central and State leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party will sit in dharna, hold protest meetings and organise press conferences in every State capital to express solidarity with the demands of yoga expert Baba Ramdev and civil society group led by Anna Hazare.
Even as Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj went to Haridwar to meet the yoga guru at his ashram — as did Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Ashok Singhal — party spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said that since the government was not reaching out to the Baba, Ms. Swaraj had gone to see him in her capacity as Opposition leader.
It was her solemn duty to do so, he said, as the ruling Congress here said this was one more proof that Baba Ramdev was just another face of the Rashtriya-Swayamsevak-Sangh-led Sangh Parivar, of which the BJP was an important arm.
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Mr. Hussain's view was that the government should not be obstinate, it should continue the dialogue it had started with Baba Ramdev and find a solution for the problem of black money being stashed away abroad.
On Baba Ramdev's call to the youth to join his ashram for training in weapons, Mr. Hussain said he must have meant his yoga, which was his weapon, when he talked about training in ‘shastra' (weapons).
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Had the BJP ceded the opposition space to Baba Ramdev and was being led by it instead of leading the battle against corruption?
The party did not think so. It was supporting and encouraging every one who raises his or her voice on the issue, Mr. Husain said.