Ramdev a 'face of RSS', says govt justifying crackdown

Accusing him of being a front for the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), the government today said the action against Ramdev and his supporters was justified.

Accusing him of being a front for the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), the government on Sunday said the action against Ramdev and his supporters was justified.

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"Today it has become clear that he is another face of the RSS," a combative human resource development minister Kapil Sibal said in the first official reaction on the forced dispersal of Ramdev and thousands of his supporters from Ramlila ground after midnight on Saturday.

Sibal said Ramdev had told the government he would only hold a yoga camp for about 5,000 people at the Ramlila ground.

"How did he collect 50,000 people?" the minister asked.

Saying the government was confident of handling any situation following Ramdev's externment from Delhi, he refused to go into details of the talks he and other ministers had with the yoga guru.

The government held more than one round of talks with Ramdev before he went on a hunger strike Saturday morning against corruption and black money stashed abroad by Indians.

"What we have done is right," Sibal told reporters.