Ahmedabad Yoga guru Ramdev on Sunday stirred a hornets nest by giving a clean chit to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on corruption, saying ” he has not done anything wrong”. ” Everybody is asking me about corruption in Gujarat, but I
couldnalt39t find anything of this sort.
Modi is not doing anything wrong,” Ramdev said at an award function, where he shared the dais with Modi. ” Ministers of Congressled UPA government have been in jail. Had the Gujarat chief minister also done anything wrong, he would have been put behind bars,” Ramdev added.
Keen to dispel the impression that they were reaching out to the Gujarat strongman as part of a well- calibrated strategy, Team Anna distanced itself from Ramdevs remarks with team member Sanjay Singh describing Modi as a ” murderer of humanity”. However, the uneasiness in Team Anna camp was apparent and Singh indicated that Ramdev might have to explain why he shared the dais with the BJP leader.
” We were never in agreement with Modi. We are not in agreement with Modi now also. Narendra Modi is a murderer of humanity. It is for Ramdev to clarify on the issue,” said Singh, who was conducting the proceedings at the Hazare fast venue in New Delhi.
Hazare also touched on Ramdevs meeting with Modi, saying: ” I do not want to be dragged into this muddy debate”, and then warned: ” Donalt39t try to divide us.” On an afterthought, he added that if he saw the movement becoming directionless, ” I will stop it right there.” Hazare and Ramdev had earlier announced that both their campaigns will support each other; in fact, the yoga guru had addressed the Team Anna protest on Friday.
Hazare had also courted controversy last year after praising Modi, remarks that were later clarified as commending his initiatives for rural development.
Since then, Hazare and his team have refrained from commenting on Modi. A section in Team Anna is not too comfortable with Ramdev even though Hazare and the yoga guru share good relations.
