Yoga guru Baba Ramdev demands Bharat Ratna for saints

New Delhi, Jan 27: Yoga guru Ramdev has expressed his disappointment that no one from the saint community has been chosen for the country's highest civilian award - 'Bharat Ratna' - in the past 70 years.

"It is unfortunate that in the last 70 years, not a single spiritual leader has been honoured with the Bharat Ratna -Maharishi Dayananda Saraswati, Swami Vivekananda ji, or even Shivakumara Swami ji," Ramdev said.

Ramdev further demanded that the Government should consider someone from the saint community for the prestigious award next year.

The comment from Baba Ramdev came in the wake of demands for conferring the 'Bharat Ratna' on the iconic Lingayat seer of Karnataka's Siddaganga Mutt Shivakumara Swami, who died recently.

Shivakumara Swami died on January 21 at the age of 111 years. In Karnataka, Swami was often referred to as the "walking god" among his followers. His education society runs over 100 educational institutions in the state.

Several Congress leaders had criticised the BJP government for not pitching Swami's name for the 'Bharat Ratna.'

Mallikarjun Kharge, senior Congress leader and Member of Parliament from Gulbarga, on Saturday said his party was disappointed that the late Lingayat seer was not given the country's highest civilian award.

Meanwhile, President Pranab Mukherjee, Bharatiya Jana Sangh leader Nanaji Deshmukh (posthumously) and legendary Assamese singer Bhupen Hazarika (posthumously) were conferred Bharat Ratna.