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India’s holy men rally behind
saffron lobby
WSN Network
PATANJALI: In
the garb of religious and moral teachings, a large number of
saffron-clad babas and selfstyled holymen in
India
are rooting for the BJP-RSS agenda of Hindutva, each in its own
manner as akharas, deras and yoga centers push for an ideology that
takes hues from desh bhakti to radical nationalism to open Hindutva.
Among the top names are Swami Ram Dev, Sri Sri Ravi Shanker, Murari
Bapu, Aasa Ram and many such who pedal stuff like an agenda to bring
home the secret billions stashed in Swiss banks, giving the country
back its pride, selling yoga to the entire world to achieve world
peace and making Bharat mahaan. Most of the idiom is inspired by the
right wing Hindutva spewing outfits and the agenda is thinly-veiled
to help the BJP, VHp, Shiv Sena etc. Ramdev has newly formed the
Bharat Swabhiman Trust and is spreading his election-related
preachings through volunteers in over 6 lakh villages and towns in
616 districts across India.
The objective,
he says, is to achieve 100 per cent voting everywhere. “This is to
strengthen democracy, kill corruption and get ourselves some honest
legislators,” Ramdev said. Slogans like “Cast your vote but don’t
vote your caste” which sound beautiful and are articulated in a
sinister way against the lower castes at a time when brahamanical
elements in all parties guard their turf with much help from such
babas are flung around. Ramdev, whose unique Yoga style has a cult
following, has also communicated to political parties that they must
bring back the supposedly humungous amount of Indian black money
lodged in Swiss banks. But since is this is largely the agenda of
the BJP, and Advani and company hav picked up the line, Ramdev is
clearly seen as part of the saffron lobby. As is Sri Sri Ravi
Shanker.
8
April 2009
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