Curb Corruption

Ramdev calls for putting decisive check on the menace:

Yoga Guru Swami Ramdev called for putting a decisive check on corruption and earnest implementation of all the welfare schemes in order to control the Naxal menace.

"Lack of development is the main cause for growing Naxal and Maoist activities and a decisive control on corruption for earnest implementation of the welfare schemes was required for checking this menace", Ramdev told reporters here. Claiming that he had met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi two years ago to demand concrete measures for checking corruption, Ramdev regretted that no step has so far been taken in this direction. The yoga guru claimed a minister in Uttarakhand asked for bribe but refused to divulge his name or the party, which was in power at that time.

"In case the present government failed to take any step in this direction, efforts would have to be made to change the government through democratic process", he said, adding that though he has no plan of entering politics or launching a party as of now, but a new political scene might emerge in the coming two years. "After this change, corruption would be fully controlled and the process of bringing crores of rupees stacked in foreign banks and the campaign against foreign companies harming the country's economy would begin", he said.

To a question, Ramdev said that he has earned the ire of the corrupt and foreign companies against whom he has started a campaign and faced a life to threat. He also claimed that almost 99 per cent ministers in the present government were corrupt. He also advocated framing a law awarding capital punishment to the corrupt.

Baba wants 'Z-plus' security

Yoga guru Baba Ramdev has requested the Uttarakhand government to provide him with 'Z-plus' security considering his vulnerability to attacks from his opponents. "Baba Ramdev has been exposing the intentions of MNCs in the field of health and beverages, launching a tirade against corruption and establishing Indian tradition and culture. So, he has become a target of his opponents," general secretary of Ramdev's Haridwar-based Patanjali Yogpeeth Acharya Balkrishna said. Since he also floated a political party 'Bharat Swabhiman Trust' and has announced to contest the next general elections, the number of opponents who may harm him have increased, he said. Balkrishna said he has recently sent a letter to the Uttarakhand government asking for providing 'Z-plus level' security to the yoga guru. Currently, Ramdev has been given 'Y-level' security.