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Ramdev adopts anti-Cong stand

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Press Trust of India New Delhi

Giving a slogan 'Congress hatao, desh bachao' (Remove Congress, Save the Country), Ramdev ended his five-day protest with a call to his supporters to march to Parliament for a dharna demanding immediate steps to bring back blackmoney stashed abroad.

His protest fast was marked by dilly-dallying over the last three days as he deferred announcing his strategy in the face of central government's total indifference to his agitation against corruption.

Unlike in June last year when he was bundled out of Ramlila Maidan in a midnight police crackdown that attracted adverse comments of Supreme Court, police virtually adopted a kid glove approach this time in a bid to avoid any fracas.

 

At noon, police stopped him and his followers from moving ahead towards Parliament, three km from his protest venue Ramlila Maidan, and took them into preventive custody.

But what followed was a high drama that ended in Ramdev and his supporters being taken to a makeshift jail in Ambedkar stadium instead of the planned destination of a stadium Bawana in the city's outskirts.

Egged on by the pledge of support on the stage in Ramlila Maidan by BJP chief Nitin Gadkari, JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav and representatives of TDP, Akali Dal and Janata Party, the yoga guru declared that his missiom will be to defeat Congress in the next elections. MORE

  

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First Published: Aug 13 2012 | 10:05 PM IST

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