Manmohan Singh should show political responsibility against graft: Baba Ramdev

HYDERABAD: Yoga guru Ramdev today said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should display "political and constitutional responsibility" in cracking down on corruption.

"Personally, there is nothing against the Prime Minister. But he has to display political and constitutional responsibility in dealing with corruption," Ramdev said here referring to the coal blocks allocations.

The yoga guru, who is leading an agitation against corruption and black money, met Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu here today to drum up support for the cause.

After the meeting, Ramdev told mediapersons that his group was forced to agitate because those in power were not coming forward for discussions to tackle corruption and black money.

"I wrote a letter to Sonia Gandhiji and spoke to her secretary Madhavan more than five times. He always promises to get back after talking to her but it never happened. Same is the case with bhai Rahul," he said, adding they never closed doors on them.

He said he has so far spoken to several political leaders in the country on these issues.

Referring to black money, the yoga guru said while a certain amount was stashed abroad, some was lying in India.

"A lot of black money in the country is in the form of gold. Officially they say there is 20,000 tonnes of gold but it could be about one lakh tonnes," he claimed.

"Apart from gold, black money is in land, real estate, mining, drugs and with politicians and Naxalites," he said.

The so-called white paper published by the Government of India on black money was in fact a "jhoot paper" (paper of lies), he said.

If all the black money was seized by the government, India would emerge as an economic super power in the world, he said.