Ramdev's fast virtually ends but CM says it's still on

After week-long drama, yoga guru Ramdev’s fast virtually ended today after he was given glucose at a private hospital.

As Ramdev’s blood pressure and pulse showed a drastic fall in the afternoon in Haridwar where he was fasting, he was rushed on a stretcher in an almost unconscious state to Dehradun’s Jolly Grant hospital. He was given glucose in the ICU that also virtually ended his fast. But Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and close aides of Ramdev claimed the fast was continuing and the spiritual leader was not force-fed through the mouth.

“Ramdev’s health is improving and he is stable now,” a doctor from the Jolly Grant hospital said in the evening. “We know that Ramdev hates allopathic medicines, but despite this we gave him glucose, owing to deterioration in his health,” said the doctor.

The yoga guru was shifted to the hospital as doctors attending on him opined that his health parameters were “worrisome”.

A Patanjali Yogapeeth spokesman claimed the decision to shift Ramdev to a hospital was taken by Nishank, who gave directions to the Haridwar district magistrate in this regard.

The security around the Jolly Grant hospital has been tightened, SSP Dehradun G S Martolia told Business Standard.

There was commotion at the ashram as some of Ramdev’s supporters protested the district administration’s move to shift him to hospital. Some protestors even clashed with police when the yoga guru, who is on a fast against corruption and black money, was being taken on a stretcher. However, it was resolved immediately with the help of ashram authorities.

Doctors, who had examined Ramdev in the morning, said he needed immediate hospitalisation. In the morning, Ramdev’s blood pressure was 104/70, which was very low and the pulse rate was 58 per minute, also low, doctors said. “Since such conditions put pressure on the heart, we advised that Ramdev should be hospitalised immediately,” said Yogesh Sharma, chief medical officer, Haridwar.