Yoga guru Swami Ramdev has challenged Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to take action against his predecessor Sheila Dikshit, saying "the day he puts her in jail, he will become a superhero". Replying to queries from Rajat Sharma in India TV show Aap Ki Adalat, Ramdev said, there was no point in Kejriwal asking BJP leader Harsh Vardhan for evidence against Sheila Dikshit. "He (Kejriwal) has nearly 500 pages of evidence..He had announced fight against corruption. There is no need for him to collect evidences from others. The day he gets an FIR filed against Sheila Dikshit and puts her in jail, he will become a superhero. But let him do that", said Ramdev. The yoga guru reminded that it was Kejriwal who had said he had taken a vow in the name of his kids that he would neither take nor give support after the elections. "He (Kejriwal) broke his vow taken in the name of his children. If he has broken his vow he must confess clearly before the people that he is with Congress", said the yoga guru. When Rajat Sharma pointed out that Kejriwal had conducted a sort of referendum in Delhi on forming government, Ramdev quipped: "Will Kejriwal hold a referendum on whether he should go to the washroom or not...after all there is a voting process in democracy and governments are formed on the basis of how many MLAs a party has." On the Congress party's view that AAP may hamper Modi's chances, Ramdev, who has openly come out in support of Modi, said: "I believe if Kejriwal eats into 5 per cent of Modi's votes, he will eat into 95 per cent of Congress votes...So it's my best wishes to him that the Congress should be decimated, as dreamed by Mahatma Gandhi and now Narendra Modi. Let Kejriwal fulfill that dream." Asked whether he has vowed that he would not return to Haridwar until and unless Modi becomes the prime minister, Ramdev sidestepped the question by saying: "Neither corruption, nor poverty has ended, nor has black money returned. That's why I have vowed that we will make India a great spiritual and economic superpower and install a 'singh' (lion) on the throne of India who can take us back to those heights". Ramdev hit out at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his remark that Modi as prime minister will be disastrous. "Those who call Narendra Modi as disastrous and 'maut ke saudagar' (merchants of death) should know, even Nehruji was responsible for the death of 10 lakh people during Partition.. Our PM did not see the killings of Sikhs during 1984, but sees massacre on the roads of Ahmedabad. I want to say, if Narendra Modi is disastrous, a murderer, then Nehruji was a greater disaster and a greater merchant of death". Asked about Modi's inaction during the 2002 Gujarat riots, Ramdev said: "Tell me the name of one PM or CM under whose rule communal riots did not occur? Did Narendra Modi himself go and kill people...Modi ji has grief in his heart over the riots, he does not want the minorities to be killed". On his recent demand to abolish all taxes and impose banking transaction tax, the yoga guru clarified: " In 1978, China and India had similar GDPs and their export shares were also the same. Now look where China is and where we are. I want all taxes to be abolished and impose banking transaction tax. The tax will be on the person or firm which receives money through banking transactions, and not on turnovers. "There should be three slabs. No tax on transactions for workers and farmers. All transactions should be through checks". Explaining his proposal, Ramdev said, "suppose a firm does a turnover of Rs 100 crore and makes Rs 10 cr profit, by today's tax rates, it will have to pay Rs 3 cr tax, but by my formula, the firm will pay Rs 2 cr tax and save Rs 1 cr." On Rahul Gandhi, Ramdev said: "Personally he is not a bad man. The boy is innocent. But he is so innocent that he accepts the advices of people around him, particularly from Madhya Pradesh. At least he should keep a good guru with him, instead of 'guru ghantaals' (cheats)..he has no proper knowledge of India."

• published: 11 Jan 2014
• views: 2014