Hariprasad castigates Ramdev, spares Anna

BANGALORE: The Congress on Sunday came down hard on those leading the anticorruption movement in the country.Terming the constituent members of the civil society on Jan Lokpal Bill panel as “most corrupt”, All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary B K Hariprasad said yoga guru Baba Ramdev was acting as the “stooge” of the RSS and BJP in the guise of fighting black money and corruption, while likening him to a fake saint.Speaking at a function organised by the block unit of the Mahalakshmipuram assembly seat here on Sunday, the AICC leader asserted that those promulgating the cause against corruption were themselves under cloud.Hariprasad accused Baba Ramdev of stashing away wealth in questionable sources. The yoga guru owns business houses worth `1,100 crore, he said, adding that he had resorted to a hunger strike despite the government convincing him about the efforts being made to unearth black money lodged aboard.Baba Ramdev was nothing but an agent of the RSS and BJP and other communal forces, he said.He said: “Prashant Bhushan, a member of the civil society in the Jan Lokpal Bill drafting committee, has amassed over `1,000 crore,” while demanding a disclosure of his assets.His tirade, however, spared Anna Hazare, although he claimed that the “others have no moral rights to speak against the social menace”.On Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde, who is also a member of the drafting committee of the Lokpal Bill, the Congress leader wondered why he was silent on corruption of the BJP-led state government.