Narendra Modi government rejects Baba Ramdev's Patanjali Yogpeeth's bid to take over Khadi revamp

NEW DELHI: Yoga guru Ramdev’s bid to take over the government’s khadi sector has come to nought, with the Centre politely rejecting a proposal to give his Haridwar-based Patanjali Yogpeeth complete responsibility of research, marketing, quality control and management. Instead, the government has decided to revamp the khadi industry itself, by putting “best systems in place”.

Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) minister Kalraj Mishra told ET that the government has decided to take Swami Ramdev’s suggestions as “advice” and not associate Khadi with any other brand.

“We invite suggestions but we have our systems in place. Their suggestions were valid and we are looking into them,” he said, adding khadi is a symbol of Indianness and swadeshi and will be a big component of the government’s flagship programmes such as ‘Make in India’.

Ramdev had in a recent meeting with officials of MSME ministry proposed an extensive project “to salvage khadi and give it new life”.

The MSME ministry has instead signed an MoU with Rural Self Employment Training Institutes, an initiative of the rural development ministry, to start rural incubation centres across India that will provide training and employment in khadi-related industries.

Bengaluru-based social worker Veerendra Heggade, who will monitor this effort, had earlier launched a ‘rural city plan’ in coastal Andhra Pradesh to provide opportunities to youths in villages to keep them from migrating to cities. The government has also tied up with the National Institute of Design to make khadi more contemporary and, as part of this initiative, it is set to organise a series of fashion shows in colleges, starting with one in Delhi this week.

The government has also decided to improvise the charkha design by making it a pedalling machine to increase its productivity.

Senior officials in the ministry said the decision against associating Khadi with Patanjali Yogpeeth was taken after a lot of internal thinking.

“We had a hearty discussion with Patanjali Yogpeeth members, but we think Khadi has an identity of its own.

We have no shortage of funds as we have government funds, and also some from national banks,” said an official. The government has been mulling over a complete revamp of the khadi industry ever since it dissolved in July last year the Khadi and Village Industries Commission, which was formed in 1956 to promote the indigenous handmade products. The ministry had then said this was done to make it more effective in generating more employment in the rural sector.

PM Modi had during his first ‘mann ki baat’ radio address to the nation on October 3, 2014, urged people to use khadi products. About 12.5 million people are employed in the industry, with the annual turnover from Khadi and Gramodyog estimated at Rs 17,000-20,000 crore.

Acharya Balkrishna, co-founder of Yogpeeth, confirmed Ramdev had proposed to “take khadi out of ventilator and give it a new life”, but he refuted claims that the Yogpeeth intended to take over the sector.