Yoga guru Ramdev defends Sushma Swaraj, but says Lalit Modi involved in 'shady deals'

CHANDIGARH: Yoga guru Ramdev today sought to justify External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's help to former IPL chairman Lalit Modi, but admitted that "no doubt he was involved in some shady deals".

Amid furore over the External Affairs Minister's help to Lait Modi in procuring travel documents to go outside UK, Ramdev asserted that her decision was taken on "humanitarian" grounds.

"She (Swaraj) did this on humanitarian grounds, as Lalit Modi's wife is suffering from cancer," he told reporters here.

On being asked that Modi had been facing probes in money laundering, Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax, Ramdev said,"It's not my subject, please don't drag me into this controversy."

However, Ramdev said that there is no doubt that he (Lalit Modi) was involved in some "shady deals" and "inquires are going on against him (Modi) by probe agencies".

The yoga teacher reiterated his stand on black money asserting that it should be brought back to the country. "The Narendra Modi government still needs to go far to bring black money stashed in foreign banks," he said.

Laying strong emphasis on yoga, Ramdev also advised Congress leaders to do it on regular basis to get it's eroding vote bank back. "If the Congress leaders start doing yoga, then the party can get the 'Rajyog'," he claimed.

Congress leaders Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi used to do yoga regularly and they had 'rajyog', he claimed.

He claimed that Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi too believed that traditional yoga is best suited treatment for the ailments in Indian climate.

Taking a jibe at Rahul, he said, "Rahul started doing yoga and after a few days he stopped, till the time he (Rahul) was doing yoga it was all fine for him. When he stopped doing it, you see then what happened to him, 'no ache din' (no good days) for him."

He advised Rahul to do yoga regularly so that everything becomes fine for him and refuted that there was a political agenda behind the International Yoga Day.

"Congress president Sonia Gandhi was not well, she started doing yoga, she is better than before. I know she was doing some exercises of yoga," he claimed.