The Lunch with Swami Ramdev (“I am the only saffron-clad Muslims trust”, March 23) was a great read. But more interesting than the information it gave about Ramdev’s empire (the multi-crore pharmacy, the land gifts …) was what the piece told us of his plans. In more ways than one, Ramdev seems to be a throwback to the days when the Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) seemed to rule the BJP — all the talk of ridding India of MNCs or that they take out more money from the country than they put in … all of this is similar to the SJM’s spiel. The piece mentions the belief that Ramdev has about black money, of how there is this huge sum of money that can be got and used to spend on the poor, if only the government was willing to tackle it. Clearly, Ramdev has not studied the history of black money schemes, including recalling of currency notes — even the VDIS, the most successful of all amnesty schemes, didn’t gather even a fraction of the black money in the country. As for Ramdev’s view that he’s got a billion fans, thanks to 24x7 TV, he’ll get a rude shock in the elections. If life was that simple, Amitabh Bachchan or Aamir Khan would be the prime minister today!
Akhil Sinha, New Delhi