Ramdev's 'Dupatta' politics

Forgive me if this treads heavy on your yogic sensibilities, but there was something intrinsically ludicrous when cross-dressing yogi Baba Ramdev launched himself from his perch at the Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi, into a gaggle of women and senior citizens – all to save himself from the Delhi Police.

Here was a man who had been wooed by the high and mighty of the UPA. A man received at the Delhi airport by no less than four of the Congress’ top leaders, ready to kow tow before his whims and fancies. Here was a man whom the RSS and Govindacharya had praised for his gumption and willingness to tread where the BJP has feared to step.

But shortly past the midnight hour, like Cinderella’s pumpkin chariot, Ramdev’s beanstalk began to quietly whither away. Perhaps it was the giddy heights of swimming with the power sharks of the capital, that eventually did the right honourable Baba in.

There is no doubt that Ramdev has political ambitions. Ambitions that at one point had drawn such praise from the RSS, that his yogic halo had outshone a blundering BJP stricken by internal strife. There were whispers in the corridors about how the next elections in Uttarakhand would perhaps pitchfork Ramdev from the yoga mat to the political throne. Verily, it was a scenario that had many in the BJP quivering in the state.

Suddenly, somehow, civil society seemed to have forgotten what the Ramdev phenomenon had been all about over the years. Here was a man who has a while back, claimed to have developed a cure for AIDS and for cancer. Here indeed, was a man who said homosexuality was a “bad habit”. A yoga guru who swore he could “cure homosexuality with yoga asanas”. Here was a man who had miraculously morphed into the ‘new age’ poster boy of civil society, bring saffron fervour to the common man’s cause in a manner that only a Baba Ramdev could.

And all of a sudden, Ramdev could do no wrong. So much so, that even a reticent Anna Hazare found himself hitching a ride on the Ramdev-wagon.

For me that was the tragedy. Allow me to speak my mind. I find something intrinsically fishy about Ramdev. I find him a slippery character. I don’t have a problem with him taking up the common man’s cause. It is a just cause and will work miracles for our economy if the fabled black billions come home to roost. Somehow, I can’t seem to bring myself to trust him. And its got nothing to do with his saffron robes or his Hindi. I have a problem with his reasons for taking up the anti-black money cause.

The UPA government and the Congress in particular, has not yet given me a single plausible reason for not revealing the names on the ‘black’ list handed to them by Swiss authorities. Their reticence smacks of an amateurish attempt at shielding the guilty. Even the Supreme Court was unforgiving in its opinion about the UPA’s reasons for not revealing the ‘black’ list.

But I’d rather put my faith in the unassuming Anna Hazare and his warriors, when it comes to fighting my cause – be it the Lokpal Bill, black money or anti-corruption. When Hazare puts his name to a cause, chances are I will be ready to consider it. Perhaps, even support it. Hazare too speaks in Hindi. His means are simple. So are his ideas. Perhaps too simple. But isn’t that simplicity what we should be looking for in our search for solutions to seemingly complex problems?

Such is Anna’s credibility, that it wouldn’t make a sliver of a difference if he were to ditch his white kurta and Gandhi topi, in favour of saffron robes. And I’m sure, he’s puritan enough, not to choose to slip into a salwar-kurta at the first sight of the police. Now that’s something I buy!