Ramdev: A political force for the good?
Amidst the hustle and bustle of a town dotted with temples and brightened up by saffron-clad “sadhus” or holy men, was a pandal with a thousand people waiting for Baba Ramdev’s daily yoga preaching.
At least 30 million were waiting to start their day with his discourse, through live telecast on an Indian spiritual channel.
Holy man Ramdev, known for popularising Yoga and traditional ayurvedic treatment and also for practising the ancient technique of breathing exercises called Pranayam has been beset by controversies for the last few years.
His recent decision to enter politics and “cleanse the system” has also created quite a furore.
Many political leaders have made their disapproval public including Lalu Prasad Yadav, leader of Rashtriya Janata Dal party calling his decision to join politics “berserk”.
Even though Ramdev has made it very clear he does not want to be an office holder or a Member of Parliament, he says he still aims at a 100 percent win in the next Lok Sabha elections.
Contesting elections from 543 Lok Sabha constituencies will be a part of his recent movement called ‘Bharat Swabhiman’ or Indian pride which aims to eradicate corruption and deal with other social issues like poverty and education.
@Narayan
I am not sure what was the point of your article. It was rather well written till I came to the last paragraph where presumably lies the heart of the matter. What I fail to understand is that how would a set of stretching exercises transform primary education even if it has the capacity to spread almost like a virus. Wouldn’t the knowledge of basic critical thinking imparted to the students at that early age by their teachers, be more effective? And to be clear India produces 3 times as much scientists than US per year. So critical thinking is not associated to western ideology. It is the best system we have till now to gain knowledge and understanding about the world around us. It would be good if Indian academicians stop supporting frauds and shaman if they really want to popularize science.