Baba-govt deal stuck in last-minute mistrust

Baba Ramdev’s agitation was delicately poised late Saturday evening amidst signs that last minute misunderstandings and communication gaffes could throw into disarray some carefully made plans of ending the stalemate. The atmosphere at the Ram Lila grounds swung dramatically Saturday evening from hope and jubilation to anger and betrayal. [caption id=“attachment_20475” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Union Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal at a press conference in New Delhi on Saturday. PTI”] [/caption] First amidst lusty slogan shouting the Baba announced that the government has conceded to his main demands and the Union minister , Kapil Sibal, has conveyed the same to him over telephone Baba Ramdev told his supporters Saturday evening (7.30 pm) that he will end his fast as soon as he got a written intimation of the same from the government. The Baba also said he was asked by Sibal to go out and make a announcement to his supporters on the basis of the telephonic conversation. But the Baba refused to end his fast just on verbal assurance and said the fast will continue till all his major demands were conceded in writing by the government. “I believe in fair play and straight talking. I don’t record telephone conversations and I want to believe what the minister has told me. But our simple nature should not be taken as foolishness and we will not forgive any treachery,” he told his supporters. He also said that he will not have any more conversation with anybody from the government over telephone and wait to see in writing for he has been promised over telephone. But soon after there were signs of misunderstanding brewing between the Union telecom minister and one of the main negotiators on behalf of the government , Kapil Sibal, and Baba which now threatens to throw a spanner in the works and derail the deal. Baba charged the Union minister with lying and trying to mislead him as well as the country by duping his close associate, Acharya Balkishan, into writing a letter which was only for the eyes of the prime minister. “I will never speak to him ( Kapil Sibal) again,” Baba said. But the Baba also kept repeating he does not wish to vitiate the atmosphere and was still hopeful that the government would do the right thing. While the government has conceded to his two main demands about declaring black money stashed abroad as “national asset” and draft a law to combat the menace of black money, the government has talked about constituting a committee to suggest amendments in the existing laws on the issue of black money. The Baba so far has said he will not agree to the word committee. “We don’t want a committee. We want action,” Baba Ramdev told his supporters repeatedly Saturday evening. Earlier the Baba beat a strategic retreat after being warned by those negotiating on behalf of the government that a protracted fast by him was likely to complicate matters and force the government to harden its stance vis-a-vis the yoga guru. The negotiators conveyed to the Baba that the government was facing a lot of flak 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. This rethink in the strategy was as much to exert pressure on the Baba in the ongoing battle of nerves as to combat a growing impression that the government was giving in too much too fast. So the party spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi, was first asked to blast the yoga teacher in his press conference 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, labeling him a BJP-RSS front man and questioning his jet setting ways and the 5-star facilities at the Ramlila grounds. 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. While a group in the party and the government was upping the ante against the Baba during the day, another group –led by Pranab Mukherjee and assisted by the ministerial duo negotiating with the yoga guru, Kapil Sibal and Subodh Kant Sahay—was busy giving final touches to the draft of a letter which was to be sent to the Yoga Guru. The fate of Baba’s fast now hangs on a fine balance. There is a lobby within the government , Congress party and even in the civil society and the opposition which does not want a negotiated truce so soon with the Baba. Such a closure could be projected as a victory by both Manmohan Singh and Baba Ramdev. That’s a message a lot of powerful interests don’t want projected at this stage.