Police remove Baba Ramdev and his supporters during their hunger strike / AP Source: AP
Police remove Baba Ramdev and his supporters during their hunger strike / AP Source: AP
AROUND 30 people have been injured when Indian police fired teargas to break up a protest centred around a yoga guru on a "fast unto death" against government corruption, according to local media.
Swami Baba Ramdev began his hunger strike in a huge tent in New Delhi yesterday, accompanied by a large number of his followers, in an anti-graft campaign that has piled fresh pressure on the ruling Congress party.
A large number of police descended on the protest site in the early hours today, the Press Trust of India news agency said, including anti-riot forces.� PTI said around 30 people were taken to hospital after the ensuing melee.
Broadcaster NDTV said Mr Ramdev had been asked to leave Delhi and had agreed to do so voluntarily, citing sources at the home ministry.� Delhi police commissioner BK Gupta told PTI the guru had not been arrested.
"There are some security concerns. We have cancelled the permission (for the protest)," he said, according to PTI.
Mr Ramdev has called for repatriation of so-called "black money" - cash stashed in foreign accounts suspected of being used for bribes and illegal transactions - and the execution of corrupt government ministers.� His protest rattled the Congress party government, apparently worried the protest could snowball into a populist campaign amid outrage over a slew of corruption allegations.
The bearded guru, who claims he can "cure" homosexuality, cancer and AIDS through yoga and other alternative therapies, has accused politicians of gaining vast sums "from the people's hard-earned money".
"All corrupt ministers should be given the death sentence," said Mr Ramdev, who has a huge TV following for his daily yoga show.
The government has said the maximum penalty for corrupt bureaucrats would be "substantially increased" and pledged speedy trials for people accused of corruption, but stayed silent on the guru's demand that they should hang.
"We want to solve the problem of corruption," said Congress party spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi.� But he accused Mr Ramdev of allowing himself "to be remote controlled by political interests".
Mr Ramdev, who has wide support from right-wing Hindu groups, has insisted his anti-graft movement is secular and also invited Muslim clerics to share the podium for his fast.
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