File photo of Yoga guru Baba Ramdev
With 81 cases of alleged gross violation of land laws registered against Ramdev's Patanjali Yogpeeth Trust, main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttarakhand has termed it as a "conspiratorial move" by the state government at the behest of the Centre.
"This is part of a conspiracy hatched by the Centre to persecute Ramdev who has vociferously raised issues of corruption and Indian black money stashed away in foreign banks," Leader of Opposition in Uttarakhand Assembly Ajay Bhatt said in a statement yesterday.
Accusing both the state and central governments of indulging in politics of vendetta, he said the BJP will not tolerate insult of saints and nationalists without valid reasons.
He said the urgency with which chief minister Vijay Bahuguna went to town about registration of 81 cases of alleged gross violation of land laws by Ramdev's Trust itself indicates the political motives behind the move.
"Issuance of notices is a legal process.The respondent in such cases is given some time to respond to them. Only then the courts of law give a verdict based on the merits of the case. But in this case the chief minister did not even wait for the notices to reach Ramdev and went to the press making the disclosures.
"This shows he is acting at the behest of the Centre to persecute the yoga guru," Mr Bhatt alleged.
He said the "belligerence" of a party like the Congress over the issue is hard to swallow as members of the first family of the party are themselves involved in a number of alleged "shady" land deal cases.
At a time when an illegal land deal with DLF in Haryana hangs like an albatross round the Congress's neck, it is hard to swallow the party's belligerence towards a man like Ramdev who runs an institution for universal welfare, he said.
A total of 81 cases were lodged by Haridwar district administration against Ramdev for alleged gross violation of land laws and evasion of stamp duty.