India cracks down on hunger strike led by yoga guru

( AP ) - Indian police officers remove a supporter from the site where renowned yoga guru Baba Ramdev was holding a hunger strike in New Delhi early Sunday.

NEW DELHI — In a swift midnight action, Indian police cracked down with canes and tear-gas shells to drive away tens of thousands of people who were on a hunger strike against corruption in New Delhi and briefly detained the yoga guru who led the massive nationwide protest.
The yoga guru, Baba Ramdev, was taken on a special plane Sunday morning out of the Indian capital and dropped at the city of Dehradun, a northern city on the foothills of the Himalayas. Television reports later showed Ramdev arriving at his sprawling ashram in Hardwar.

(Manish Swarup/ AP ) - Renowned yoga guru Baba Ramdev speaks during his hunger strike against corruption in New Delhi on Saturday before a police crackdown on the demonstrations.

When talks with the government broke down late Saturday after both the government and the guru blamed each other of breaking their promises, dozens of policemen swooped down on the tented site in Old Delhi after they said that Ramdev’s permission to protest had been cancelled. The protestors resisted and threw stones at the policemen, creating panic and near-stampede at the site. Within hours, the tented site looked emptied out and filled with policemen.
When Ramdev was taken away by the police, he shouted: “Why am I being arrested at night without any information? I appeal to the people to be calm.”
Later, huge crowds thronged Ramdev’s ashram site shouting slogans, as a tired-looking Ramdev got out of the car in white clothes, unusual for the orange-robed guru. He declined to accept the marigold flowers with which supporters were garlanding him.
“Today is the blackest day in history. We will observe black day all over India. The fast is not over,” Ramdev told his followers, speaking into a microphone.
A popular yoga guru and televangelist, Ramdev had led the hunger strike demanding that the government bring back illicit money deposited in secret foreign banks by corrupt Indians. The hunger strike was the latest protest action in an eight-month-long anti-corruption campaign fueled by a long list of scandals that have angered Indians.
But talks with the officials soured late Saturday evening after Kapil Sibal, India’s education minister, released a letter that he said was written by Ramdev’s aide and contained a pledge from the guru to end the fast in less than 24 hours.
“A guru who teaches yoga should not teach politics to his followers of 50,000 people at the site. The permission was for yoga exercises, but he violated it,” said Kapil Sibal, who was part of a team that was negotiating with Ramdev on his demands until Saturday.
But a follower who was sleeping on his yoga mattress under the tent when the police arrived said that the government was denying them the right to protest.
“We were sitting there peacefully singing songs, doing yoga. Were we violent? Did we steal public money like our politicians do? Did we break tax laws? Why did the police beat us with their canes? They took away our saint-like guru,” asked Savitri Arya, 60-year old woman who had travelled to New Delhi with her family for the protest. “All we want was an end to the corrupt ways of our leaders. Do we not have the right to protest in this democracy?”
An official in the government said that the permission to hold the protest at the site was given for a day and Ramdev and his followers had exceeded it. But the police action has led to a wave of anger among political parties who are now calling for the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to resign.
“This government has no moral authority to rule anymore. This government should resign. They let the corrupt go, but beat up people who are conducting peaceful protest,” said Nitin Gatkari, the president of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party. The party has announced a nationwide sit-in against the police action.
In April, hundreds of Indians protested against graft and many activists fasted until the government agreed to their demands of considering public input in writing a new anti-corruption law.
The leader of the April protest, 73-year old Anna Hazare told reporters on Sunday that he condemns the police action.
“They beat up women? This is a stigma on our democracy. All Indians must condemn it,” Hazare said. “There will be a revolt across India to teach this government a lesson.”