Ramdev, Parivar rally against Centre on 8216;Hindu terror8217; News Archive News

Yoga guru Baba Ramdev and Sangh Parivar leaders made a strong pitch for 'regime change at Centre when the country goes to polls.'

Written by Sumankjha

Panipat | November 17, 2008 12:00 AM IST

4 min read

Yoga guru Baba Ramdev and Sangh Parivar leaders like Ashok Singhal and Sadhvi Ritambhara on Sunday made a strong pitch for 8220;regime change at the Centre when the country goes to elections in the coming months8221;. 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 8220;attempts to target Hindus in the name of Hindu terror8221;.

BJP president Rajnath Singh, who joined in towards the end, said his party 8220;would take to the streets8221; if the 8220;ongoing campaign against religious leaders was not halted.8221; Party8217;s prime ministerial candidate L K Advani couldn8217;t make it 8220;he couldn8217;t fly to Panipat because of bad weather,8221; said an Advani aide to the meeting, but speaking at a rally in Chandigarh later in the day, he said, 8220;The Congress coined the term Hindu terrorism, but the BJP never used any term like Muslim terrorism.8221;

Raising the pitch on the Pragya Singh Thakur issue, Ramdev said: 8220;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 India8217;s past is restored.8221;

The Yoga guru8217;s ongoing Yoga Vigyan Shivir in the same grounds has been a huge draw. However, the turnout in Sunday8217;s public meeting was extremely poor. Ramdev8217;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 8220;sponsored campaign8221; in the ongoing Malegaon blast probe. RSS chief K S Sudarshan said that the term 8220;Hindu terror8221; was an 8220;oxymoron, because the Hindus, by very definition abhor violence8221;. He said, 8220;The country would always be guided by spiritual gurus like Asaram Bapu, Morari Bapu, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Baba Ramdev.8221; On his part, Ramdev added that 8220;the Muslims and Christians of the country shared common ancestors with the Hindus.8221;

Quoting a TV channel, Rajnath said, 8220;The ATS claims of Lt Col Purohit8217;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.8221;

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While most of the speakers said that Pragya, like 8220;Shankaracharya Jayednra Saraswati earlier8221; was being hounded only because she happened to be 8220;a saffron-clad ascetic8221;, a good number of them said that 8220;even if her involvement in terror was established, it could not be equated with Islamic terror8221;.

Swami Chidananad Saraswati, who recently organised a 8220;dialogue8221; between Advani and Christian leaders, was one of the organisers of Sunday8217;s public meeting. Asked how 8220;voices of reconciliation8221; had suddenly changed notes, he said: 8220;Punish the guilty in the blasts, but don8217;t brand him guilty before the charges are established.8221; Asked how religious gurus like Ramdev could make political comments, he said: 8220;The political overtones in his speech only show that the sant samaj is hurt as they are being viewed with suspicion8221;.

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