Sometime back, I had the opportunity to read an article on the political aspiration of our Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev.
Baba Ramdev has announced that he will form a political party which will fight the next general elections in 2014 for which an organization named “Bharat Swabhiman Trust” has already been formed. The manifesto of Bharat Swabhiman can briefly be summarized as follows:
– To end financial corruption and to bring back nearly Rs 258 lakh crore of black money stashed away in foreign banks so as to use it for national development.
– To ensure capital punishment for crimes like corruption, rape, dowry death, cow slaughter and terrorism. For this, fast track courts will be set up that will deliver justice in one to three months, and these offences will be kept out of the purview of the Presidential pardon.
– To uproot the political and administrative system put in place by the British, who sought to exploit, crush and enslave India, and to Indianise and make entirely swadeshi the educational, health, legal, economic and agricultural systems.
He has declared that he will not contest the elections himself but will guide and select the candidates for election. He cites the examples of role played by Swami Dayanand, Vivekananda, Chanakya and Gandhi in politics. He says that for 543 good individuals required in Parliament, he already has 10,000 office bearers in his organization who have no question mark against their character.
The article under reference further says that Baba Ramdev has been eyeing to enter in politics for the last 20 years and in the meantime he has built an empire of over 1000 cr in India and abroad through yoga, herbal medicines and spirituality.
My concern on the issue relates to the competence of the people dedicated to yoga and spirituality in governance, especially in the present era of globalisation infested with international terrorism. However, Yoga Guru is confident that good governance can be delivered by honest people of good character through the application of yoga and spirituality alone.
I wish Baba Ramdev proves right. However, I am reminded of a childhood story - Once upon a time there was a King who died prematurely. After his death, the courtiers fought between themselves as to who would be the next King. But there was no unanimity. Ultimately, they caught hold of a Sadhu who was simple to deal with and was most uncontroversial. The Sadhu was thus made the King. After sometime, when the King of the neighbouring kingdom came to know that a Sadhu was the ruler, he attcked to capture Sadhu’s kingdom. The warriors in Sadhu’s kingdom started losing the battle. They had seen their King in poojas and religious discourses, the Sadhu was never a source of inspiration for fight and struggle in a battlefield. The enemy soldiers finally entered the gate of Rajmahal while the Sadhu was busy in meditation. When the helpless courtiers warned the Sadhu to save their lives, the Sadhu fled away from the back door.
Dr P R Prasad, Patna