Thaindian News

New Delhi, June 6 (IANS) Reacting for the first time on the police crackdown on yoga guru Baba Ramdev and his supporters, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Monday said it was “unfortunate” but the authorities had “no alternative”.

“It is unfortunate that operation had to be conducted but quite honestly, there was no alternative,” he told reporters at an event here.

The prime minister also said that his government was “serious and concerned about corruption and black money”.

This was Manmohan Singh’s first public reaction since the Saturday midnight police action on Ramdev and his supporters at the Ramlila Ground here forced the yoga guru to quit Delhi and left at least 100 people injured.

In response to another question, the prime minister said there was no magic wand to end corruption.

“We are very serious about fighting corruption but there is no magic wand,” he said.

The crackdown on the yoga guru and his supporters, many of whom were sleeping, has attracted widespread criticism across the political spectrum. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) equated the police action to the Jallianwala Bagh attack during British rule.

A delegation of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) members Monday also met President Pratibha Patil and demanded a special session of parliament to discuss the police action on Ramdev, who is popular for his yogic powers in India and abroad. They asked the government to explain its “brutal action”.

The BJP had blamed the prime minister and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi for the midnight attack.

Ramdev, who was fasting for tough laws against corruption and black money, had to flee New Delhi in the garb of a woman. He reached his ashram in Hardwar Sunday, where he has continued his hunger strike.

The Congress has slammed Ramdev, calling him a “thug” and the mask of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).