Author: Manas Dasgupta
Publication: The Hindu
Date: June 6, 2011
URL: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2079626.ece
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has held
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh responsible for the "barbaric" police
action against yoga guru Baba Ramdev and nearly a lakh of his innocent supporters
and said this marked "the beginning of the end of the Congress-led UPA
government rule at the Centre."
Describing the police action as "Ravanlila"
at the Ramlila grounds in Delhi, Mr. Modi said the incident reminded the people
of the Emergency days of 1975. People did not spare the then Congress government
for its repressive actions, likewise they would not allow the present "barbaric"
Congress government to survive.
Mr. Modi - who converted a function to lay
the foundation of a polytechnic college in his Assembly constituency of Maninagar
on Sunday into a political gathering following the midnight police swoop on
Baba Ramdev - wanted to know that if the Prime Minister himself was honest,
what prevented him from taking concrete action against corruption and unearthing
black money. He said the Delhi police were directly under the control of the
Central government and the Prime Minister could not escape responsibility
for the midnight action.
Mr. Modi said Dr. Singh's "mere blunt
responses" to all questions on corruption and black money with "I
don't know and I have no knowledge" were neither the proof of his innocence,
nor would any longer be acceptable to the people. "He must come clean
on the issue and accept responsibility for the barbaric police repression
against innocent women and children at the Ramlila grounds," Mr. Modi
said.
Linking Hasan Ali's recent arrest to the "undemocratic"
actions at the Ramlila grounds, Mr. Modi said the Congress leaders and the
government were now worried that the "real faces" who had stacked
black money in crores of rupees in foreign banks would become public. Hence
it had become jittery and wanted to crush Baba Ramdev's movement with an iron
hand. He clearly hinted that Hasan Ali was a mere frontman of the top Congress
leaders, who owned crores of rupees in black. Otherwise, why should the Congress
government be worried about the Ramdev agitation since it was not directed
against any particular political party or the government, he asked.
Mr. Modi, however, was confident that the
Congress government would not succeed in its design to crush the agitation.
"The country has woken up to the menace of corruption in high offices
and black money and will not stop at anything short of total eradication of
these evils," Mr. Modi said.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad international general
secretary Pravin Togadia, who was at Sidhpur in Patan district in connection
with a VHP training centre, while condemning the action against Baba Ramdev
said all the sadhus and sants in the country would now rise against the Congress
government. He demanded the Prime Minister's resignation for unleashing the
"unprovoked repressive action."
Meanwhile, thousands of supporters of Baba
Ramdev staged street demonstrations, burning effigies and shouting slogans,
in different cities and towns of Gujarat to protest his arrest. The agitators
said they would continue the fast till the Centre accepted all his demands.
