Was Baba Ramdev's arrest justified or an over-reaction on the government's part? A Ganesh Nadar spoke to experts to find out their views on the development
Claiming that black money to the tune of Rs 500 lakh crore (Rs 500 trillion) was stashed by Indians in foreign banks, yoga guru Baba Ramdev has advocated for bringing that money back home.
Yoga guru Baba Ramdev has warned of a "big revolution" if the Prime Minister did not meet his demands for announcing immediate steps to bring back black money, enactment of a strong Lokpal and measures to end corruption.
Amid the threat of yoga guru Baba Ramdev to go on a hunger strike on the issue of black money from June 4, the government on Wednesday said the series of steps taken by it to unearth unaccounted-for wealth have started yielding results.
Yoga guru Ramdev, who is on an indefinite hunger strike against black money and corruption, on Thursday made public details of his business empire worth over Rs 1,100 crore, claiming everything was in order.
Asokan said Ramdev went against the medical profession by saying "modern medicine is a stupid and bankrupt science".
In an interview with rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa, Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar says that even though he supports the cause, he would never support anybody who resorts to violence.
In the eye of a row over his comment that Rahul Gandhi visits Dalit homes for "honeymoon and picnic", yoga guru Ramdev on Saturday expressed regret to the Dalit community but claimed his remarks were "misrepresented".
Injustices cannot be evaluated, modified, twisted, suppressed or brushed aside. The colour of the anti-corruption movement should be the tricolour, says Shehla Masood
Anna Hazare and his supporters, on Wednesday evening, ended their day-long fast to protest the police crackdown against yoga guru Baba Ramdev and his followers at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi. Hazare ended the fast at 6 pm.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday extended its "full support" to Baba Ramdev's fast against corruption and accused the Congress of "double standards" on the issue, saying while ministers hold talks with him, some party leaders criticise the yoga guru's agitation."Baba Ramdev is sitting on a fast at the Ramlila ground in Delhi. Whoever fights against corruption, he and his movement has our full support," BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said.
Yoga guru Baba Ramdev has said that the Bharatiya Janata Party was "over-enthusiastic" ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, and warned it against infighting within the party.
Many Dharmagurus attended the Shubh Ashirwad ceremony.
Yoga guru Baba Ramdev on Saturday put up a brave face, saying it has not flouted any FSSAI norms.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah took a dip at the Triveni Sangam in Mahakumbh Nagar on Monday and described the Maha Kumbh as a unique symbol of the Sanatan culture's philosophy, which is rooted in harmony.
'I want to say to my Muslim friends that if they want to free Islam from the curse of terrorism, they have to embrace spirituality and yoga helps that. Yoga promotes serenity.'
'The wonderful thing about being a journalist is that when someone tries to muzzle your work, it's a badge of honour.' 'You know you've done something right,' Priyanka Pathak-Narain, the author of Godman To Tycoon: The Untold Story Of Baba Ramdev, tells Sunil Sethi.
Political intolerance is at its peak in the country. Therefore, someone is criticising Modi and some other Jaitley and the BJP.
Ramdev has defended the medicine saying it has nothing to do with the birth of a son or daughter
India's premier defence research organisation, DRDO has now roped in yoga guru Ramdev's Patanjali Ayurveda Limited to manufacture and market in the country and abroad some herbal supplements and food products developed by it.
Amid sharp criticism over his medicine promising the birth of male child, Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev on Friday hit back at the opposition leaders for their unwarranted comments and said that they were attempting to malign Prime Minister Narendra Modi's image through him.
Yoga guru Baba Ramdev dismissed criticism of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as a 'communal leader' saying it is only Congress propaganda to corner the BJP leader.
Yoga guru Baba Ramdev, who is a known supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has said that he sees a lot of 'Indianness' in Congress president Sonia Gandhi's daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan is under attack from the Shiv Sena again, this time for his criticism of yoga guru Baba Ramdev's proposed hunger strike against corruption.
A day after the Union cabinet withdrew a controversial ordinance on convicted lawmakers it had earlier cleared, yoga guru Baba Ramdev on Thursday termed the decision as "strangulation of democracy" as it was effected after condemnation by Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi.
The Delhi police have denied permission to social activist Anna Hazare to go ahead with his fast at Jantar Mantar on Wednesday to protest against the clampdown on yoga guru Baba Ramdev and his supporters. The government has been receiving flak from all sections -- its political opponents as well as the common man -- for the police atrocities meted out to Ramdev's supporters and it's morals are being questioned.
"Yoga is about acceptance and coming to terms with who you really are, your purest core," says yoga teacher Deepika Mehta. "It helps you shed the layers imposed by society. And in my experience, yoga has helped a lot of people come to terms with their sexual orientation, rather than live in denial."
Noting that he was "not focussed" on politics, the 53-year-old yoga guru said he would not support or oppose anyone in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The Chhattisgarh Election Commission has proposed the addition of expenses incurred during Baba Ramdev's recent visit to the state in the election expenditure account of the Bharatiya Janata Party, as his speeches during this period allegedly amounted to a campaign in favour of the ruling party.
Yoga guru Ramdev was on Saturday booked by Uttar Pradesh police for his controversial remarks targeting Rahul Gandhi that drew flak from various quarters with Congress demanding that he give a public apology as he had insulted Dalits.
Rediff.com is republishing this column (June 7, 2011) which is relevant even today, by Shehla Masood, the Bhopal-based Right to Information activist who was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Tuesday.
Rajeev Srinivasan on how Ramdev, Hazare, and Husain are all representative of different strands in Indian society.
Talking to media persons in Jalna in Maharashtra, Hazare said that he had spoken to Ramdev about his remarks. Ramdev did not mean all the MPs when he made the statement but only a few, Hazare asserted.
Unfazed by attack from various quarters, the Congress on Sunday justified the midnight crackdown on Baba Ramdev's fast against corruption and accused him of "inciting people" despite striking a deal with the government for ending his protest.
The Congress on Tuesday reiterated that the United Progressive Alliance government has taken firm steps to bring back black money stashed abroad in the last three years, and criticized leaders of the National Democratic Alliance for lending support to yoga guru Baba Ramdev's agitation.
After yoga guru Baba Ramdev was banned from conducting programmes in Himachal on Monday and booked in Maharashtra and Rajasthan under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes Atrocities Act for his honeymoon remarks targeting targeting Rahul Gandhi, the yoga guru said he would move the courts against the curbs.
A Delhi court has asked the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Delhi police to file a detailed report on the action taken by them so far on the complaints about alleged corruption in the Commonmwealth Games-related cases.
Stating that Art of Living (of Sri Sri Ravishankar) and Ramdev are doing good work, Gadkari asked them to start ayurvedic spas to give massages and ayurvedic treatment at these islands being opened up.
Even as yoga guru Baba Ramdev vacated the hospital bed on Tuesday and went straight to address media persons, not many realised that another ascetic, who had been admitted to the same hospital, had lost his life after fasting for 114 days.
Bihar's Janata Dal (United) State President, Vasisht Narain Singh, on Monday demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on moral grounds over the forceful eviction of yoga guru Baba Ramdev and his followers from Delhi's Ramlila grounds on Saturday.