Yoga guru Baba Ramdev, who is on an indefinite hunger strike against black money and corruption, on Thursday made public details of his business empire worth over Rs 1,100 crore, claiming everything was in order.
On his sixth day of fast, Baba Ramdev addressed a press conference here during which his close aide Balakrishna said that the capital involving the four trusts run by him totalled Rs 426.19 crore while the expenditure incurred on them amounted to Rs 751.02 crore.
"We believe in transparency in work and in financial matters. There is proper audit of all our firms and companies. As per rules, government renews our trusts after every two years only when our audits are clean. What has come and what has gone, who has given it and how was it spent, is all maintained," Balakrishna said.
The move to make public assets followed questions raised by Digvijay Singh and other Congress leaders who wanted a thorough probe into the source of the wealth acquired by Ramdev in the last five years.
Balakrishna, however, did not give details of the companies, saying it can be obtained from Registrar of Companies under the RTI Act.
"We pay tax as per government norms. TDS is deducted. We follow all rules. Details of all out associate companies can be taken from Registrar of Companies and from the government under the RTI Act. Tax details and balance sheets of trusts have been put on the web site," he said.
While Divya Yoga Mandir trust has a capital of Rs 249.63 crore, Patanjali Yoga Peeth trust has Rs 164.80 crore, Bharat Swabhiman trust has Rs 9.97 crore and Acharyakul Shiksha Sansthan has Rs 1.79 crore, all totalling Rs 426.19 crore. The exependiture outlined for these trusts since their inception came to Rs 751.02 crore.
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Yoga guru to make public details of personal assets and of his firms and trusts
Yoga guru Baba Ramdev will declare his assets on Thursday evening, to counter allegations that he has illegal wealth of Rs 1,100 crore. He will declare his personal financial details and also the assets of firms and trusts associated with him.
Baba Ramdev's business empire and the dealings of his key aide Balakrishna are under the I-T scanner. Balance sheets of the companies under Ramdev banner will be handed over to the taxmen. In the last five years, Ramdev is said to have built a huge business empire of over 30 companies. Balakrishna is a director in most of them.
Earlier senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh had questioned Ramdev’s assets and demanded a probe into it.
BJP distances itself from Ramdev's 'force-formation'
BJP today sought to distance itself from yoga guru Baba Ramdev's plan to set up a force as part of his anti-corruption crusade, saying the party never propagates violence.
"We will not support anything like that as the party never propagates violence," BJP national spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said at a meet-the-press programme here.
He said BJP would extend moral support to anybody who will come forward to fight corruption and rejected Home Minister P Chidabaram's charge that civil rights activist Anna Hazare and Ramdev were masks of RSS.
Javedkar said the Congress was trying to frustrate anti-graft movement in the country by targeting Hazare and Ramdev.
Criticising the Home Minister for attacking RSS on Ramdev issue, Javadekar said RSS was not a banned organisation and challenged the government to take action against it.
"Let the government ban it (RSS) and face the music. The movement had been banned twice earlier. But it has gained strength as the largest ever school of patriotism in the country," he said.
Condemning the action on anti-corruption protesters at Ram Lila Maidan on June 5, Javadekar demanded a Supreme Court monitored probe into the police action to unearth the truth.
He said the party also wanted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi to apologise to the nation for the police action during Ramdev's fast.
Centre's alert to states on Baba Ramdev
The home ministry is sending a "routine advisory" to the governors of the opposition-ruled states on possible law and order problems that may arise from Yoga guru Baba Ramdev's agitation against black money snowballing in other states.
It has expressed apprehensions that Ramdev's continuing provocative speeches from his Haridwar ashram in the BJP-ruled Uttarakhand is vitiating the atmosphere.
The ministry decided to send the advisory after reviewing the speeches of the BJP leaders, including the chief ministers of Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.
Sources said Uttarakhand governor Margaret Alva has been asked to keep a close watch on the situation, especially Ramdev's rhetoric and how supporters react. She has been advised to review the situation with the state chief secretary, home secretary and state police chief.
Even while admitting that the situation is not as serious as in 1992 after the Babri Mosque demolition by the RSS outfits, sources said the ministry noted how the BJP-ruled states had allegedly given shelter to the kar sevaks behind the demolition. The ministry's fear is that the BJP-ruled states may promote agitation by Ramdev's supporters, though it hopes that the popular support he gained from the midnight crackdown on his show in Delhi will wane within a week.