Like millions of others across India, I have spent the past week repelled by the spectacle of a weak government entering into improbable contortions over the naive and somewhat bizarre demands of Baba Ramdev. And when the “toughness” followed in the early hours of Sunday, it came in a typically cowardly fashion — with police action in the dead of the night against unarmed supporters who did not pose an...

It was not that long back that Baba Ramdev, a Yadav from Haryana, was just a superior Yoga instructor with a mass following, a people's Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, whose clientele was at the upper end of the social spectrum. Today, Baba Ramdev heads a Yoga and health empire, worth hundreds of crores, with even an island off the coast of Scotland, gifted to him by grateful devotees, to run a...

-The Hindustan Times   After the midnight purge, Baba Ramdev now faces CBI and income tax department scrutiny. The government activated the two agencies to look into the companies, properties and audit accounts of the Yoga guru and his aides on Sunday, the day it broke up his fast, evicting him and his supporters from the Ramlila Maidan. Initial paperwork has begun. Under the scanner is the functioning of about 200 companies with...

If nothing else, the Delhi police raid on Baba Ramdev's camp on Sunday has helped clear some confusion. The midnight swoop was unexpected, but we now know that the central government, which treated the Yoga guru like an honoured state guest when he first arrived in Delhi, is his enemy. Congress leader Digvijay Singh has described Ramdev as a "thug" and a "fraud". In turn, Ramdev has accused the centre of...

-The Hindustan Times   Never a dull moment in Indian politics —  or whatever you choose to call what the nation was subjected to last week that culminated in self-styled activist, Yoga teacher Ramdev being evicted from the Ramlila Maidan on late Saturday night. The government finally did the right thing. After days of wooing the man — with the four Union ministers sent to placate the Baba-ji outside an airport — and...