Sonia miffed at Centre's overtures to Ramdev

At least twice in the last five days, Congress President Sonia Gandhi has expressed strong disapproval of the government’s overtures to yoga guru Ramdev.

First, she sent party general secretary Digvijaya Singh — former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and a known critic of Ramdev’s agitation programmes — to meet finance minister Pranab Mukherjee in his office hours, after the latter returned from his airport adventure last Wednesday. Singh, who enjoys an excellent personal rapport with Mukherjee, told the senior leader the party high command was shocked at the way the he rushed to the airport to meet Ramdev.

The next day, at the core committee meeting, Gandhi questioned the need to send four cabinet ministers, especially Mukherjee — the number two in the cabinet — to hold parleys with Ramdev. Top sources claimed Gandhi is upset at the undue importance Ramdev got from the government.

Before boarding the aircraft from Ujjain, Ramdev had called Mukherjee’s office and expressed his desire to meet government managers. The yoga guru turned anti - corruption crusader was reluctant to come to North Block, the finance ministry’s den. It was decided that a meeting would be held at the customs house—another finance ministry estate situated near the IGI Airport.

At the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs meet last Monday, home minister P Chidambaram was assertive the government must do something to stop Ramdev from holding his fast mela. PM Manmohan Singh, Mukherjee and others agreed a congregation organised by Ramdev, a very popular yoga master, could pose a security risk. “Any untoward incident, from a short circuit fire to a terror attack could have a serious impact. We want to avoid it,” said a Congress manager.

It was unanimously decided that Mukherjee would go and meet Ramdev. Mukherjee is as well-conversant in Hindi as Ramdev is known to be in English. So, it was decided to take the best legal brain of the UPA, HRD minister Kapil Sibal, and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal to help him understand what Ramdev says. The two were also chosen to explain to Ramdev the legal implications of his demands. Subodh Kant Sahay volunteered to join the team, saying he knew Ramdev well and had a good personal equation with him.

The party leadership was not in the know of the government managers’ plan of meeting Ramdev at the airport. Later, UPA troubleshooters explained to Gandhi they wanted to avoid another Anna Hazare type incident. When Hazare sat on a fast unto death in Jantar Mantar in April, there was a strong view within the government that he should be forcibly evicted and force fed. However, a final decision could not be taken as home minister P Chidambaram was away in Tamil Nadu for election campaigning.

This time, Chidambaram was of the view the government must try to stop the congregation.