Kartik Krushan Dashmi
Yoga guru Baba Ramdev made a strong pitch for ‘regime change’ at the Centre in the LS polls.
Panipat (Uttar Pradesh) : Yoga guru Baba Ramdev and Sangh Parivar leaders like Ashok Singhal and Sadhvi Ritambhara on Sunday made a strong pitch for "regime change at the Centre when the country goes to elections in the coming months". They, however, stopped short of endorsing the BJP.
The entire saffron brotherhood, including the chief ministers of BJP-ruled states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, was present to protest against what they called "attempts to target Hindus in the name of Hindu terror".
BJP president Rajnath Singh, who joined in towards the end, said his party "would take to the streets" if the "ongoing campaign against religious leaders was not halted." Party’s prime ministerial candidate L K Advani couldn’t make it ("he couldn’t fly to Panipat because of bad weather," said an Advani aide) to the meeting, but speaking at a rally in Chandigarh later in the day, he said, "The Congress coined the term Hindu terrorism, but the BJP never used any term like Muslim terrorism."
Raising the pitch on the Pragya Singh Thakur issue, Ramdev said: "Power is today being exercised by people who should either be in jails or who should be hanged. There will be a massive tussle for power three months hence. The country needs a big change, where Sant Shakti (religious gurus) and Jan Shakti (people power) come together. This process will not stop until the glory of India’s past is restored."
The Yoga guru’s ongoing Yoga Vigyan Shivir in the same grounds has been a huge draw. However, the turnout in Sunday’s public meeting was extremely poor. Ramdev’s six-day camp was inaugurated on November 12. Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda visited the camp the next day.
The congregation on Sunday charged the Congress-led UPA Government of running a "sponsored campaign" in the ongoing Malegaon blast probe. RSS chief K S Sudarshan said that the term "Hindu terror" was an "oxymoron, because the Hindus, by very definition abhor violence". He said, "The country would always be guided by spiritual gurus like Asaram Bapu, Morari Bapu, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Baba Ramdev." On his part, Ramdev added that "the Muslims and Christians of the country shared common ancestors with the Hindus."
Quoting a TV channel, Rajnath said, "The ATS claims of Lt Col Purohit’s sourcing of RDX for the Samjhauta blasts may not hold water now that it is being said that ammonium nitrate and sulphuric acid were used in the blasts."
While most of the speakers said that Pragya, like "Shankaracharya Jayednra Saraswati earlier" was being hounded only because she happened to be "a saffron-clad ascetic", a good number of them said that "even if her involvement in Terror was established, it could not be equated with Islamic terror".
Swami Chidananad Saraswati, who recently organised a "dialogue" between Advani and Christian leaders, was one of the organisers of Sunday’s public meeting. Asked how "voices of reconciliation" had suddenly changed notes, he said: "Punish the guilty in the blasts, but don’t brand him guilty before the charges are established." Asked how religious gurus like Ramdev could make political comments, he said: "The political overtones in his speech only show that the sant samaj is hurt as they are being viewed with suspicion".
Source: Expressindia.com
