With no truce in sight soon, govt talks tough on Ramdev

Stung by criticism from within the party about bending backwards before the Baba and conveying the impression about being weak, timid and prone to browbeating, the UPA government is now trying to cut its losses and convey an impression that the government will not give in to the unrealistic demands of the yoga guru. The contours of this rethink in the government are being made public in a calibrated manner. [caption id=“attachment_20461” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Baba Ramdev with a follower at the Ramlila Ground in New Delhi on Saturday. PTI”]  [/caption] Part one of the strategy was to ask party spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi to blast the yoga teacher in his press conference on Saturday afternoon. There are not many in the party who revel in that kind of a job as Singhvi. So he played the perfect hatchet man in his usual acerbic, laced with sarcasm style openly targeting Baba’s credentials, labelling him a BJP-RSS front man and questioning his jet setting ways and the 5-star facilities at the Ramlila ground. Singhvi’s tirade was interestingly followed by Beni Prasad Verma, Union minister from Uttar Pradesh, which will be the stage for the next big political battle for the Congress party in less than a year’s time when the country’s most populous (and the most crucial state politically) will go to polls. It is no coincidence that Verma is a confidante of the AICC general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, Digvijay Singh, who has been consistent in his opposition to the Baba and has taken exception to the manner in which the government has been surrendering before the the yoga guru in the last few days. The Congress veteran was openly critical of the government’s decision to dispatch a team of senior ministers to meet the Baba at the airport earlier in week. He has also not minced any words while dubbing the Baba as a businessman whose assets and Rs 1,000 crore empire needs to be investigated. Till the time the government was hopeful of finding a solution and stop the Baba from sitting on his fast unto death against corruption, the strategy was to follow a carrot and stick policy. The government would try the carrot in their bid to cajole and convince the Baba to give up his fast while the likes of Digvijay Singh would brandish the stick to be wielded more openly if the talks with the yoga teacher failed to yield the desired result. Now with an early, easy and painless resolution not in sight, it’s becoming clear that the confrontationist line taken by the AICC general secretary, Digvijay Singh, is finding more takers in the UPA. Those supporting Digvijay Singh say it’s one thing to try and avoid  a Anna Hazare like debacle and not be seen as a government which is indifferent to the issue of corruption which has so taken over the nation’s psyche but  quite another to come across as  a weak and timid state which threatens to go under and capitulate under pressure. So with the hardliners now calling the shots in  the governing set-up—at least for the time being—an early end to the showdown between the Baba and the government seems unlikely.