Thursday Post

Today I am writing about a man, who has become an institute by himself and his name is

Baba Ramdev

Initially he became famous as Yoga guru, now a days he is also known for his work in Ayurveda business through his brand Patanjali and his views on political scenario in the country. Although his real name is Ram Niwas Yada but he is famous as Baba Ramdev.

He founded the Divya Yog Mandir Trust in 1995 and through which he started popularizing his yoga courses all over the country. In 2003, Aastha TV began featuring him in its morning yoga slot. Large number of people and many celebrities in India and abroad started attending his yoga camps. He has taught yoga to many actors including Amitabh Bachchan and Shilpa Shetty. He taught yoga in countries including Britain, the United States and Japan. In 2006, he was invited by Kofi Annan (UN President) to deliver a lecture on poverty alleviation in a United Nations conference. Yogi Haider considered the face of yoga in Pakistan, says that his ambition is to emulate Ramdev Baba and popularise yoga amongst Pakistanis.

He also founded Patanjali Yogpeeth, an institute for the promotion of yoga and ayurveda. It is also located in UK, US, Nepal, Canada and Mauritius.

He along with Acharya Balakrishna started Patanjali Ayurved, a company to promote Ayurved and natural  products for consumers. The company was founded in middle of last decade. This company is giving tough competition to MNCs and other Indian companies like Procter and Gamble,Hindustan  Unilever, Colgate, Godrej, Dabur and many more. After listening to Baba Ramdev more and more people are switching over to the products manufactured and marketed by Patanjali. Patanjali Company’s turn over has already crossed Rs 5000 Crores in the last financial year. The Maharashtra government plans to tie up with  Baba Ramdev, and sell off the excessive products derived from materials available in forests to Patanjali.

In year 2010, he announced to start a political party called Bharat Swabhiman, but this idea fizzle out with in a year. When in 2013, BJP projected Modi as their PM candidate for 2014 General Elections, he started supporting Modi and the BJP. His attempts to run yoga camps during that election campaign, allegedly to gain support for Modi, were stymied by the Election Commission (EC) who determined that they were indeed politically motivated. The EC had also tried to control his use of camps in the Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh state elections of 2013.

He was the main crusader in the anti corruption drive along with Jan Lokpal Bill agitation. He declared that he will go on fast from June 4 2011, at Ramlila Ground , New Delhi, for pressurizing Govt to eradicate corruption and bringing back the Black Money lying in overseas banks. Govt tried to Set up panel to suggest steps to be taken for curbing corruption and black money, trying to placate Ramdev.

On the morning of June 4, about Lakh people gathered at Ramlila ground in support of Ramdev. In the evening of Jun 4 Kapil Sibal, the Union Minister in a Press Conference spoke against Ramdev, and said that he had agreed to call off his agitation. Ramdev took this as betrayal and stood by his agitation, and announced that agitation will continue till a proper ordinance by Govt is announced in place of forming a panel.

At mid night a team of about 10,000 Delhi Policemen Rapid Action Force(RAF) personnel raided Ramlila ground, when most of the agitators were sleeping. Tear Gas shells and a lathi charge were used to evict the crowd between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. The tent was set on fire at many places. Water was thrown over power generators to create complete darkness to prevent any video recording of the whole attack. However most media persons recorded what was going on. Ramdev was arrested while he was running away in  disguise  of women’s clothing. He was detained in isolation at Safdargunj Airport for a few hours and then deported to his ashram in Haridwar via helicopter. He was banned from entering Delhi for 15 days. On reaching Haridwar, Ramdev declared that his fast would continue.

Government stopped media person or anybody to enter the hospital to check the injured. Protesters huddled near the Metro station, bus depots and railway stations. Many walked down to Gurdwara Bangla Sahib and other nearby ashrams. While several supporters spent the day in a park near Ramlila Maidan, others took shelter in Arya samaj at Paharganj.

There were accusations that Police treated women very badly. One woman suffered crippling spinal injury and later died in hospital.

After this incident, Ramdev accused the government of cheating him, and alleged that there was a conspiracy to kill him and that he was threatened during a meeting with senior ministers. All political parties other than the Congress criticized and condemn action, called it undemocratic ,deplorable and shortsighted. Apart from politicians, he was also supported by civil societies as well. Activist Anna Hazare termed the crackdown of the agitation as killing of democracy.  Protests were held in many parts of the country against police action.

Later Baba Ramdev went back to his ashram in Hardwar, and said he will work for the defeat of Congress in 2014 elections and see that his slogan will be Congress Hatao Desh Bachao.

During the elections in 2014, he and his group whole heartedly supported BJP to see that they come to Power and Modi becomes PM.

He still supports the works of Narendra Modi, but he is not actively participating in politics.

Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

29 Nov, 2018