Describing the post-midnight crackdown on Baba Ramdev and his followers in Delhi as “Ravanlila on Ramlila Maidan” and the “worst day” in Indian history, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi on Sunday held Prime Minister Manmohan Singh responsible for the development.
“After what I heard and saw about yesterday’s incident at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi, I feel it would have been better if I had not been the chief minister, my hands would not have been tied, and I would have gone to Delhi and started a big war there,” Mr Modi said in his speech at the inauguration of a new dental college in Khokhara area of the city.
All that Baba Ramdev was asking was that the Prime Minister should state that he would bring back black money within a certain period, Mr Modi said.
The lathicharge by the police while people were asleep was “a Ravanlila at Ramlila Maidan”, Mr Modi said.
Mr Modi said, “The PM had said during the 2009 elections that he would develop mechanism to bring back black money stashed in Swiss banks within 100 days of coming to power. But today, it is two years and nothing has happened.
“The Congress will have to answer 120 crore people of India about the use of violence on innocent people,” he said.
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JD-U: An attack on democracy
ANAND S.T. DAS
Patna
June 5: The sentiments of anti-Congressism rife in Bihar’s politics got fresh impetus with the state’s ruling JD(U) and BJP on Sunday rebuking the Congress-led Centre for the midnight eviction of yoga guru Baba Ramdev from his proposed anti-corruption convention site in Delhi and describing the act as an assault on democracy.
With the added significance in the day that happened to be the 37th anniversary of Jayaprakash Narayan’s epoch-making call for “total revolution” against corruption in the country, words of reprimand against the Centre uttered by chief minister Nitish Kumar of the JD(U) and deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi of the BJP bore an extra intensity. Narayan’s 1974 agitation was being commemorated across Bihar as Sampoorn Kranti Divas on Sunday.
“The use of such brute force on Ramdev and his supporters last midnight was no less an assault on people’s basic rights and democracy. They (Central ministers) held him in high esteem, went to the airport to receive him and held talks with him. So what prompted this midnight raid?” Mr Kumar said.