Digvijay justifies police action; says Ramdev is ''fraud''

New Delhi, Jun 5: Unfazed by attack from various quarters, Congress on Sunday, June 5 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.

Terming the yoga guru as a "fraud", AICC General Secretary Digvijay Singh also demanded an inquiry into the "thousands of crores of rupees" of property owned by Ramdev.

Singh, a bitter critic of Ramdev, demanded an inquiry into the Income Tax exemption granted to the yoga guru, who is also into the business of manufacturing Ayurvedic medicine.

"Congress has nothing to do with this (action). It has been done by the local administration," Singh said in the first reaction from the Congress on the police action.

The police action against Ramdev and his supporters drew sharp criticism from various quarters. Civil society activists termed the action as "inhuman" with eminent lawyer and former Law Minister Shanti Bhushan demanding Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's resignation.

He also claimed that Ramdev's fast was an "out-and-out RSS affair." "From day one, it was inspired and engineered by the RSS which wanted to divert the attention of the people from its terror activities that have come to light," he said.

"Don't bring any politics in this. The kind of treatment needed to be meted out to a fraud has been meted out to him," Singh said.

The government had earlier "compromised its position" as it wanted to dissuade the yoga guru from undertaking the "unnecessary fast" and had therefore sent its senior ministers including Pranab Mukherjee to him.

PTI