Ramdev gears for ‘decisive battle’

Visits the birthplace of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel to “draw inspiration”

Even as anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare disbanded his team, yoga guru Baba Ramdev told reporters on Tuesday that his agitation from August 9 would be a “decisive one.”

Baba Ramdev also differed with Team Anna on forming a political party to fight black money and corruption. Even as he refused to lay the road map for his future protest, which he said he would announce on the first day of his agitation from the Ramlila Maidan in Delhi, Baba Ramdev virtually ruled out going the Anna way or joining hands with him in his proposed political avatar.

3-day stay in Anand

Currently on a three-day sojourn in Anand in central Gujarat for “meditation” before embarking upon his “fight-to-the-finish” agitation, the Baba visited Karamsad, birthplace of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, to “draw inspiration.”

In a brief chat with the media at the ancestral house of the Sardar, now converted into a museum, the yoga guru said there would be “no cheating the people or making them feel disappointed. That is why we are calling it decisive.”

He said he would not give up the fight until the black money stashed away in foreign banks was brought back to the country, a mechanism to check corruption put in place and the present “exploitative system of administration” changed.

“This is my promise and my commitment to the people of the country,” Baba Ramdev said.

Lokpal Bill

Pointing out that he would continue to mount pressure for a strong Lokpal Bill, the yoga guru said: “After all, we are not begging for a separate country or a State. We are fighting on serious issues affecting the country and bringing down its development index.”

On the disbanding of the core committee of Team Anna, he said: “Anna has already reacted to that, but my take is that we should continue to carry out a non-political agenda.”

The yoga guru is scheduled to leave Anand for Delhi on Wednesday evening to launch his indefinite fast.