Indian police arrest protesting yoga guru

Indian police on Monday arrested famed TV yoga guru and anti-corruption campaigner Baba Ramdev as he attempted to lead a procession of thousands of supporters to parliament.

Ramdev, an eccentric saffron-robed holy man with a yoga empire that spans the globe, began a protest in New Delhi last Thursday demanding the government do more to repatriate illicit money stashed by Indians in foreign accounts.

Police parked buses and erected barricades across the route taken by Ramdev and his supporters, many of whom had come from his home town of Haridwar in the foothills of the Himalayas.

Ramdev "offered to be arrested and we are making other preventative arrests as well", area police commander Taj Hassan told AFP.

Ramdev and activist Anna Hazare have made joint efforts to mobilise Indians to fight corruption, following a string of major scandals that have tarnished the Congress-led government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"Oust Congress -- save the country," Ramdev declared at the rally.

Hazare, a former army driver who models his appearance on independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, led a huge protest movement in 2011 but his popularity and ability to tap into public anger have since waned.

Ramdev, whose current protest has been ignored by the government -- unlike in 2011 when senior ministers held meetings with him -- said he had wanted to march to parliament to have the voice of his supporters heard by lawmakers.

Police said Ramdev and other arrested protesters were transported to a stadium in the centre of New Delhi as supporters jammed the streets, making it difficult for the bus carrying the guru to move.

Initially police had planned to hold Ramdev in a stadium on the outskirts of the Indian capital. But shifting him there proved impossible "due to the traffic jam and monsoon showers", police spokesman Rajan Bhagat told AFP.

Police said they were detaining the guru temporarily and he would probably be released without charge.

Thousands of his supporters shouting "hail mother India" followed the guru to the stadium barely a kilometre from the arrest site, creating a monster traffic gridlock in one of New Delhi's busiest office districts.

India's ruling Congress party, meanwhile, charged that Ramdev was being used by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the country's main opposition.

"The country has seen today that the masks have fallen and the real faces have been revealed," Congress spokesman Janardhan Dwivedi said after BJP president Nitin Gadkari delivered a speech of support at Ramdev's rally.

"The BJP president has gone there and they (Ramdev's supporters) say they have no relationship with political parties. I am saying the masks are off," he said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/indian-police-arrest-protesting-yoga-guru-160659304.html

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