Bangalore: 'Action against Ramdev Reminder of Emergency'
Bangalore, June 5 (IANS) Karnataka ombudsman N. Santosh Hegde said Sunday's action against yoga guru Ramdev in New Delhi brought back memories of the emergency clamped in the country in 1975.
"I am very sad. There was brutality there. It reminds one of what happened on June 25-26 in 1975," Hegde, a member of Lokpal Bill joint drafting committee, told reporters here.
Ramdev's hunger strike against corruption and black money stashed abroad ended abruptly in the early hours of Sunday as hundreds of policemen swooped down on the Ramlila Ground in New Delhi, removing him and dispersing thousands of his restive supporters with tear gas and batons.
"This is violation of fundamental rights of citizens," Hegde, a retired judge of the Supreme Court, said.
"People sleeping there were beaten up and brutality could be seen in the action," he said.
On whether he would continue to be on the Lokpal Bill drafting panel, Hegde said: "If other members say that the two (Lokpal Bill drafting and removal of Ramdev) are different and we should continue, I will," he said.
The panel consists of five civil society members and five central ministers. Besides Hegde, the civil society members are social activists Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal and former law minister Shanti Bhushan and his son Prashant Bhushan.
The panel was set up after Hazare went on a fast at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi in April.