Yoga guru Babab Ramdev today sought to justify External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s help to former IPL chairman Lalit Modi, but admitted that “no doubt he was involved in some shady deals”.
Amid furore over the External Affairs Minister’s help to Lalit Modi in procuring travel documents to go outside UK, Ramdev asserted that her decision was taken on “humanitarian” grounds.
“She (Swaraj) did this on humanitarian grounds, as Lalit Modi’s wife is suffering from cancer,” he told reporters here.
On being asked that Modi had been facing probes in money laundering, Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax, Ramdev said,”It’s not my subject, please don’t drag me into this controversy.”
However, Ramdev said that there is no doubt that he (Lalit Modi) was involved in some “shady deals” and “inquires are going on against him (Modi) by probe agencies”.
The yoga teacher reiterated his stand on black money asserting that it should be brought back to the country. “The Narendra Modi government still needs to go far to bring black money stashed in foreign banks,” he said.
Laying strong emphasis on yoga, Ramdev also advised Congress leaders to do it on regular basis to get it’s eroding vote bank back. “If the Congress leaders start doing yoga, then the party can get the ‘Rajyog’,” he claimed.
Congress leaders Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi used to do yoga regularly and they had ‘rajyog’, he claimed.
He claimed that Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi too believed that traditional yoga is best suited treatment for the ailments in Indian climate.
Taking a jibe at Rahul, he said, “Rahul started doing yoga and after a few days he stopped, till the time he (Rahul) was doing yoga it was all fine for him. When he stopped doing it, you see then what happened to him, ‘no ache din’ (no good days) for him.”
He advised Rahul to do yoga regularly so that everything becomes fine for him and refuted that there was a political agenda behind the International Yoga Day.
“Congress president Sonia Gandhi was not well, she started doing yoga, she is better than before. I know she was doing some exercises of yoga,” he claimed.
Ramdev said,”Still, if the Congress does not want to take part in any yoga function held by the government, they can organise their own function on that day I can send trainers from Patanjali Yogpeeth free of cost to train and guide them.”
He said that Surya Namaskar is an exercise and it has nothing to do with any religion.
“It cannot be related to the worship of Surya (sun). Some people are in the habit of creating controversy,” Ramdev said.
Over the issue of Maggie noodles and some other products coming under the lens of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) he said, “Recently, we launched corn flakes and they are better and cheaper than Kellogg’s.”
Ramdev said that in two months time he will launch the alternative of Maggie and noodles which will be healthy.
Also in a month’s time, Powervita will be launched as an alternative of Bournvita and Horlicks, he said.
Reiterating his stand on black money issue the yoga guru asserted that it should be brought back to the country and said the Narendra Modi government still needs to go a far way in bringing back black money stashed in foreign banks.
On Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar calling Ramdev a ‘Management Guru’ he said that Bihar government had praised him. “He (Nitish) is just doing politics. he should do yoga as well,” he said.
Commenting on Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh canceling the land allotted to Patanjali Yogpeeth, Ramdev said, “As a person Singh is a fine fellow. He did it under the pressure of his party high command.”
Ramdev also said that Patanjali Yogpeeth will open Yog Ayurveda University in Haryana and also yogpeeth units in every district of the country.
He claimed that his Patanjali Yogpeeth and Patanjali Ayurved Limited are open books, the audit of which are done every year and put up on the website.
“We are clean slate. We took loan of Rs 500 crore which has been re-paid. I do not have white money what to talk about black money. I have been cleared in all the inquires initiated against me,” he said.