Kapil Sibal, cabinet minister and chief interlocutor for the Government in the Baba Ramdev case, accused the Baba of going back on his word after promising to withdraw his agitation by 6 June.
“By 2 pm he was supposed to announce that he would end the fast on 6 June (Monday). He did not keep his part of the bargain. We reminded him over the phone that you must do this by 4 pm. We extended it by 1 hour, to 5 pm. How can we trust someone who promised us that he will make such an assessment, but did not tell his followers that,” he said.
Sibal explained that the written assurance was given by Baba’s acharya [teacher.]
“The we told him that we would put his written assurance in front of the people… We felt it was deeply embarrassing for him to make the announcement [before the event] when thousands of people were coming,” he said, explaining the delay in breaking up the camp.
He also questioned a Yoga teacher’s qualification for entering politics. “The issue is that a Swami teaching Yoga should not teach political asans to the country… The permission was for Yoga camp, with a cap of around 5,000 people. The 50,000 crowd was higher than authorized,” he said.
“Any law and order situation, a conference of 50,000 people, needs to be dispersed,” he said. He pointed out that the government could not have waited for the peaceful congregation to turn violent before taking action.
“This was the reading of the Home Ministry,” he said, pointing out that the government had to take pre-emptive action against a peaceful demonstration so that it doesn’t have a chance to turn non-peaceful.
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