This Article is From Jun 06, 2011

Ramdev also divides Congress and government

Ramdev also divides Congress and government
New Delhi: Some of the most public criticism of the government's controversial handling of Baba Ramdev is coming from within the Congress.

Sources say that at a meeting with senior ministers last evening, Congress President Sonia Gandhi questioned the police action taken against Baba Ramdev and his supporters on Saturday night. Acting on the government's orders, the Delhi Police dismantled the camp that had united 65,000 supporters of the yoga teacher. 

Late at night, the police teargassed and lathicharged the camp, and the Baba was evicted. 

Baba Ramdev's camp - set up at Ramlila Maidan - was to witness his indefinite hunger strike against corruption. 

Senior Congress leader and known Gandhi family loyalist Anil Shastri tweeted, "What happened last night at Ramlila Grounds in Delhi was unfortunate and avoidable." Another tweet stressed, "It is Manmohan Singh govt. Was not a party decision."

Sources say the Congress was also upset about the government's decision to send four ministers to receive Baba Ramdev when he arrived in Delhi early last week. The ministers greeted the yoga icon at the airport and then spent hours with him at the airport lounge running over the list of demands he presented - most of these want the government to recover black money and confiscate it. The ministerial posse was denounced publicly by the Opposition which suggested the government was down on bended knee to appease the Baba.

Mr Shastri apparently agrees. "Indira ji or Rajiv ji would not have sent their Ministers to airport to placate a 'Baba' arriving in a private jet," he said in another tweet.

The somewhat obsequious welcome presented by the government backfired dramatically over the weekend when Baba Ramdev u-turned away from a deal he had struck with senior ministers to end his fast. That's when the government decided it was time to take off the gloves. The police was asked to move into his camp and disperse the crowd.

Yesterday, the government and the Congress both expressed dramatically different versions of who sanctioned the police action against the Baba. Senior minister Kapil Sibal said the party was aware of the plan; Congress General Secretary Digvijaya Singh said that was not the case.

.