Baba Ramdev booked for ‘honeymoon’ remark

Agencies | Apr 27, 2014, 05.00 AM IST
Baba Ramdev booked for ‘honeymoon’ remark
Ramdev had on Friday alleged that Rahul Gandhi went to the houses of Dalits ‘for honeymoon and picnic’
PARTIES SPIT FIRE OVER ‘ANTI-DALIT’ COMMENT

Yoga guru Baba Ramdev was on Saturday booked by the Uttar Pradesh police for his controversial remarks targeting Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, as the party demanded that he give a public apology as he had insulted Dalits. Ramdev meanwhile clarified his comment.

“If any section of the society feels hurt from the use of this word (honeymoon), I duly apologise for it,” he said. “An FIR has been lodged against Baba Ramdev at Mahanagar police station under relevant section of section 171(g) IPC (false statement in connection with an election),” Additional Superintendent of Police Habibul Hassan said.

The FIR was lodged by the police after analysing a video clipping of Ramdev’s statement made on Friday. Ramdev, who has been supporting BJP, had on Friday said, “He goes to Dalits’ houses for honeymoon and picnic.

Had he married a Dalit girl, then his luck could have clicked and he would have become the PM.” “His (Rahul’s) mother says that if you marry a foreigner girl, then you cannot become the PM and this boy does not want to marry an Indian girl.

His mother wants that him to become the PM first and then marry a foreigner,” he had added. “The word ‘honeymoon’ was taken in a wrong context by the people. It was wrongly presented. It was never my intention to insult Rahul Gandhi or the Dalits. It is true that Rahul Gandhi visits the houses of dalits for a photo opportunity.

It is purely a publicity stunt and he uses it as a picnic or tourism. This is what I wanted to say,” Ramdev said on Saturday. “With this kind of a mindset, using a gutter language, how can anyone call him a yoga guru.

I think people have forgotten that Baba Ramdev has spent all of his energies for last several weeks not on yoga but on Modi…on the BJP,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said.