Swami Ramdev (real name is Ramkishan Yadav) is well-known in India as a Hindu swami and a promoter of Yoga. He is the founder of the Divya Yog Mandir Trust and offers Ayurvedic treatments to millions of Indians. The popular swami has announced that he is launching a political party named Bharat Swabhiman. His party will field candidates in all the 543 Lok Sabha seats (lower house of parliament). In a strange decision he said that he will not contest elections himself nor take up a political position. Maybe he wants to be like a Sonia Gandhi (the power behind the power)?
There is no question that politics in India has gone from bad to worse in the last few decades. The Indian government has enacted a wide range of reforms in all sectors except politics and government. Fortunately the election commission itself is largely an independent body and this has helped the commission conduct free and fair elections for the most part. Outcome of elections is not a contentious issue as it once was in the seventies and eighties (many elections held during this period in “volatile” areas were routinely rigged to get favorable outcomes).
Swami Ramdev’s entry into politics should be welcomed. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which is the main opposition party in India has completely fallen apart and has lost popular support from mainstream Indians because of its close association with right wing political groups and organizations. Although the main opposition party the BJP itself is a regional party because it has very little support base in South and Northeast Indian states.
The question is whether Bharat Swabhiman is all that different from the BJP? Will Bharat Swabhiman be able to get support form the Indian electorate who traditionally vote for center and left of center parties? If they cannot then all they will achieve is to take away votes from the BJP rather than provide an alternative to the Congress Party lead United Progress Alliance (UPA).
Swami Ramdev’s yoga movement has broad base support in India. It is not restricted to the religious conservatives alone. But politics is different. The Swami has said very little in the past to the secular and religious minorities in India that will give them the confidence to vote for his new party.
The Divya yoga website lists the five targets that they want to achieve as 100% voting, 100% nationalistic thinking, 100% total boycott of foreign companies and complete support to swadeshi, 100% organization of patriots and to make a healthy, prosperous and “cultured” Bharat by using yoga. This is not good news for the secular and progressive minded Indians.
The Swami’s political party has to clearly separate itself from the multimillion dollar yoga business. It also has to articulate and set goals that most people in India can identify with and believe in. Otherwise it will find itself right alongside the BJP, Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and others like them as failed entities that tried to change India’s course using Hindutva.
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