There is a spate of FIRs against him ever since his controversial remark against Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi last week. Ramdev alleged that Gandhi visited the homes of Dalits “for picnics and honeymoon”.
While Congress leaders lashed out at him and the Election Commission banned his scheduled yoga camps in Himachal Pradesh as well as Amethi, he was also booked under the SC/ST Act which has provision for arrest of the violator.
But that has not deterred the yoga guru. On Tuesday, he held yet another press conference in Chamba (HP) where he accused the Congress of pressuring the EC to act against him.
Here are the five reasons why an arrest might not be all too bad for him as it might beat some public sense into the yoga guru and also force him to concentrate on his yoga teachings rather than politics.
History of run-ins with law
Right from his dramatic escape from the Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi during the midnight police action in June 2011 to his equally dramatic arrest in Haridwar where he surfaced in a woman’s attire (salwar-kameez and dupatta) the next day, the yoga guru has a history of running away from the law rather than face it. The proper action on the fateful night where he was seated on the venue along with thousands of his followers was to court arrest, rather than escape leaving them all in the lurch.
It runs in the family
In October 2013, Ramdev’s brother Rambharat was booked by the Uttarakhand Police for allegedly kidnapping and beating a youth after a raid at the yoga guru’s Patanjali ashram where they found an injured young man later identified as Nitin Tyagi. Rambharat went missing and Haridwar police remained on the lookout for five days. Police teams went to Delhi, Haryana, Dehradun and UP but there was no trace of his. A week later, the victim said in court that he pressed charges against Rambharat under police pressure and the high court stayed his arrest.
One might ask, if the yoga guru’s brother was innocent as it turned out later, why did he run away?
It was not an isolated incident. On the same night in June 2011 when Ramdev went missing from the Ramlila Maidan in a woman’s garb, his close aide Balkrishna also disappeared and reappeared four days later, claiming he had remained in hiding to avoid repercussions from the police for his involvement in the protests.
Words have consequences
There are two things Ramdev has always maintained: that he is not a politician and his barrage of personal attacks of the most vicious nature against Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s family. While talking to his followers at his yoga camps as well his numerous press conferences in election-bound places, he has never held his punches against the Congress first family. A realisation that words have consequences might go a long way in ensuring apolitical asanas in his camps as well as serving as restraint for venom-spewing politicians.
Moral code of conduct for public life
Ramdev is a high-profile yoga guru who has benefited crores all across the world by awakening people’s health consciousness. He is a public figure revered by followers spread across the length and breadth of the country. But fame brings many responsibilities along with it. The yoga guru has to realise there is a moral code of conducting public life. Eminent Indians, like Sachin Tendulkar, AR Rahman, APJ Abdul Kalam and many such others, have always followed that. Using a yoga camp to support one political party and lambast another is against that moral code, let alone the Election Commission.
Ramdev aide Balkrishna.
Ramdev aide Balkrishna.Yoga se nahin hoga
The yoga guru’s run-in with EC started long ago. Before Chhattisgarh went Assembly polls along with four other states, in October 2013, the State Election Office had proposed addition of expenses incurred during Ramdev’s then visit to the state in the election expenditure account of BJP, as his speeches during this period allegedly amounted to campaigning in favour of the ruling party.
That did not deter him.
As early as in July 2013, Ramdev had vowed to ensure the defeat of Congress president Sonia Gandhi in this Lok Sabha election by camping in and campaigning against her in Rae Bareli.
Though he has yet not camped in Rae Bareli, he is keeping the other half of his vow-to keep the Congress out of power.
Ramdev must realise that he has to join the BJP to ensure this. Yoga se nahin hoga.
