Cops learn it the hard way from Ramdev for Anna's campaign

New Delhi, Aug 31: The "non-violent reaction" of people in the Anna Hazare campaign after the veteran was arrested on Aug 16 made cops change their strategy to deal with the situation, said police.

According to officers, they also learnt lessons from the Baba Ramdev's agitation, which ended in a violent manner on Jun 5 following which they played it safe during Anna Hazare's fight against corruption.

Police had made all arrangements in prior to take Anna to the hospital two days before he would end his fast.

“Unlike Ramdev"s event, hardly any provocative speeches were made during Hazare"s campaign. We decided to refrain from using force on Anna or his supporters after we took the people"s reaction into account on August 16. We made a mistake by trusting Ramdev. Though it was supposed to be a yoga camp, he had started mobilising supporters from neighbouring states for a protest," said Sudhir Yadav, Joint Commissioner of Police (Northern range).

“From the very beginning, we had made it clear to Team Anna that the health of their leader was the most important thing. We told them that we will not allow them to force Anna to continue his fast. If the team of doctors had told us at any point of time that he could not fast anymore, we would have taken steps to rush him to the hospital. Team Anna was given the responsibility of maintaining peace among his supporters," Yadav added.

OneIndia News