Digvijay asks Ramdev to declare how much black money he has

A day after Congress appeared going soft on Ramdev, party general secretary Digvijay Singh today hit out at the yoga guru asking him to first declare how much black money he possesses before launching a campaign to bring back ill-gotten wealth stashed abroad.

A day after Congress appeared going soft on Ramdev, party General Secretary Digvijay Singh on Thursday hit out at the yoga guru asking him to first declare how much black money he possesses before launching a campaign to bring back ill-gotten wealth stashed abroad.

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"Everything of whatever I had said about Ramdev and Anna Hazare in past has come out to be true. There is a notice by Enforcement Directorate on tax evasion against Ramdev. He (Ramdev) himself is in the dock but keeps talking about bringing black money back. First he should declare how much black money he has," Singh told reporters here.

Ridiculing BJP chief Nitin Gadkari for touching the feet of Ramdev a few days back when the latter went to meet him, the AICC leader said,"I was very happy to see Gadkari on the feet of Ramdev, who is facing an ED notice on tax evasion. So the BJP President is on Ramdev's feet."

His remarks came on a day when after Sharad Pawar's NCP, another Congress ally RLD came out in support of Ramdev's campaign against black money and corruption with the yoga guru saying he will put a fresh proposal before the government during the coming Monsoon Session of Parliament.

Singh's strong attack on Ramdev is in contrast to the position taken by party spokesperson Rashid Alvi yesterday.

Alvi saw nothing wrong in Ramdev meeting Sharad Pawar on the black money issue and said Sonia Gandhi will "definitely consider" giving an appointment to him, if it was sought.

He had also not found any problem with Pawar's remarks that the yoga guru's suggestions to tackle the menace were "pragmatic". Pawar, who holds the Agriculture portfolio, had said he did not "smell politics" in Ramdev's campaign.

Softpedalling Ramdev's meetings with political leaders on black money, Alvi said, "Everybody supports the fight against blackmoney. If anybody talks against blackmoney, everybody will spontaneously support it."