Good-Baba, Bad-Baba: How Cong is playing Ramdev

The contradiction is too obvious to miss. While UPA ministers are bending over backwards in their efforts to persuade Baba Ramdev to drop his fast-unto-death against corruption, the Congress party is posturing as if it couldn’t care less about the spiritual guru’s threat. In fact, statements coming from some Congress leaders suggest that the leadership does not approve of the manner in which the government rolled out the red carpet and all but publicly capitulated before the Baba by sending a high-powered delegation of senior ministers and top bureaucrats to the airport to receive him. [caption id=“attachment_19119” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Statements coming from some Congress leaders suggest that the leadership does not approve of the manner in which the government rolled out the red carpet for Baba. AFP “]  [/caption] The ministers who met the Baba included Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and Tourism Minister Subodh Kant Sahay – the last-named being someone who reportedly has a “personal rapport” with the Baba. That AICC general secretary and Rahul Gandhi confidante Digvijaya Singh has taken the lead in  this “dare Baba” campaign is also a signal that these are no off-the-cuff remarks but part of a deliberate , well-thought-out strategy. First hints of the party’s approach towards Baba Ramdev came in the almost cryptic, non-committal and disinterested remarks made by spokespersons like Manish Tiwari and Abhishek Manu Singhvi over the last couple of days. But  Digvijaya Singh has now chosen to publicly dare the Baba and said that nobody was afraid of him. He questioned the Baba’s modus operandi as well as his rags-to-riches story. This clearly throws up the difference in approach between the Manmohan Singh government and the Sonia Gandhi-led party is in the public domain. For the record, though, party leaders, including Digvijaya Singh, are not criticising the Prime Minister for deputing his senior ministers to meet the Baba at the airport and have even asked the yoga guru to heed the PM’s call for giving up the fast unto death, saying such measures will not solve the problem of corruption or help get back black money. Their fire is directed towards the Baba hemself. Digvijaya Singh has even demanded that the yoga guru’s Rs 1,100 crore empire be investigated. The big question is whether these differences are real or just another strategic eyewash unleashed by the spin doctors of the party. It may be the usual god-cop, bad-cop routine that enables the Congress to politically run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. Of late, the Congress party has mastered the art of playing the role of both government and opposition. The party is taking advantage of the fact that despite some great opportunities coming its way in recent times to embarrass the government, the principal opposition party - the BJP – has completely failed to get its act together and take advantage of the situation. While the government’s compulsions are obvious — it needs to engage with the Baba so as to not have an encore of the Anna Hazare fiasco – the Congress party also has its own set of reasons to take a different stand on the issue. According to Congress insiders, the party is not to keen to be seen as giving in to the Baba too soon because of his well-known RSS links. Also the Baba does not have the same secular image as, say, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and the late Sai Baba. With the Uttar Pradesh elections due next year, the Congress party does not wish to send any wrong signal to the crucial Muslim vote bank there or do anything to strengthen the BJP-RSS combine. That also explains why Digvijays Singh — a known minority-friendly face of the party — has perhaps been chosen to be the mascot of this anti-Baba tirade. Also, the aggressive wooing of the Baba by the government has not gone down too well with a section of Anna Hazare supporters. The Congress is trying to ensure that the party is seen to be more equidistant between the two prominent anti-graft leaders, Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev.