Indian yoga guru is kicking up a storm ahead of polls

Baba Ramdev raises specter of ‘conversion’ while denigrating Muslims and Christians in Congress-ruled Rajasthan state

India’s Yoga guru-turned-business tycoon Baba Ramdev may not have bargained for police action when he made provocative remarks against Muslims and Christians at a recent gathering of Hindu leaders in the northern state of Rajasthan.

The state’s police registered a case against him for promoting enmity and outraging religious feelings by insulting religion.

Ramdev, who is perhaps one of the richest “godmen” in India, joins a long list of hate mongers and votaries of Hindutva who advocate Hindu supremacy and seek to transform India into a Hindu nation, a project incubated a century ago at the Nagpur headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Hindu nationalist paramilitary volunteer organization.

Like many so-called godmen, Ramdev also makes no bones about his links with India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), an offshoot of the RSS, and openly campaigned for it during the 2014 parliamentary elections.

Perhaps he wants to play a bigger role ahead of the 2024 elections. That is what it looks like.

What exactly did Ramdev say in Barmer, Rajasthan on Feb. 2 that offended Muslims?

The speech prompted a section of Muslim clergy to issue a call to boycott products of Patanjali Ayurved, the godman’s business venture which clocked a turnover of US$4.02 billion last fiscal.
Ramdev is also likely to face the music for his utterances in Persian Gulf countries, where Patanjali products are in high demand thanks to the Indian diaspora.

In Barmer, Ramdev accused Muslims and Christians of being “obsessed with conversion.”

In a video of the event that went viral on social media, he says Muslims believe that namaz washes away all sins including “kidnapping Hindu girls and terrorism.”

“Ask a Muslim what your religion says, they will say ‘read namaz five times and then commit whatever sin you want to.’ And they commit a lot of sins, but they will definitely pray. Because that is what they have been taught, just pray, and do whatever else you want to do. They become terrorists, and a lot of them become criminals,” he is heard saying.

He then claims mockingly that Christianity is “all about going to church, lighting a candle and then standing in front of Lord Jesus … [and] all your sins will be washed away.”

Ramdev further says that the adherents of both these religions were bent on turning the whole world into an Islamic or Christian domain. “But tell me what you will do by changing it. No agenda,” he goes on in the video.

Comparing the two religions with Hinduism, the godman claims that the latter teaches non-violence and honesty.

A day after, the Rajasthan unit of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind and the Rajasthan State Commission for Minorities demanded legal action against Ramdev and the FIR was registered.

The police action drew comparisons with a similar situation in 2012 when Akbaruddin Owaisi, a Muslim legislator from the southern city of Hyderabad and leader of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, had to spend 40 days in jail for inflammatory hate speech.

So, will Ramdev also meet the same fate? No one can hazard a guess for the simple reason that he happens to be close to the top BJP leadership and a darling of the Nagpur-based RSS. He also has a huge following among Hindus, most of whom vote for the BJP.

Clearly, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, who belongs to the opposition Congress, would like to avoid alienating the majority community by taking action against the godman.

“Gehlot will be seen as anti-Hindu, which will cost him and his party dearly,” Rajasthan-based political analyst Pulkit Bhardwaj said.

Ramdev’s followers seem least bothered. A close aide, on condition of anonymity, said neither do they care, nor they fear any action against their yoga guru.

“He was only stating obvious things. Is it not a fact that wherever there is some trouble, people belonging to a particular religion are usually involved?” he said.

Ramdev’s aide maintained that Hindus “always believe in peaceful coexistence,” but Muslims and Christians “always want their religion to be the flagship.”

“You have to accept other religions. This is the only thing Ramdev was trying to explain,” he said.

Gujarat-based Jesuit priest Father Ashok Vaghela said Ramdev does not know what he is saying so Christians should not take him seriously.

“His statements are laughable. I don’t think Ramdev is well-informed about Christianity and Islam. I respect his knowledge of yoga and the transformation he has brought to India by promoting the ancient practice. But he should not talk on subjects he knows nothing about,” Father Vaghela said.

Danish Qureshi, a Muslim activist in Ahmedabad, hopes the Rajasthan government takes a “calculated political risk” and takes some action, “even if symbolic.”

There is a precedent. The Gehlot government did take action against an even more powerful and popular godman, Asaram Bapu of Ahmedabad, by arresting him in 2013 for sexually assaulting a young girl.

After all, Ramdev’s inflammatory remarks might set the tone for the State legislative elections scheduled in Rajasthan and eight other states this year.

The emerging situation suits the BJP, helping it divert public attention from a damning BBC documentary on Gujarat’s anti-Muslim riots of 2002. The ruling party is known to gain from such needless controversies and will not let this opportunity go to waste.

The ball is in the court of Rajasthan’s Congress government.

This article is published on https://www.ucanews.com/