Shiv Sena today said it disapproved of fast as a political weapon, but argued that yoga guru Baba Ramdev was a citizen of India, and had every right to create a political space for himself.
Sena's comments -- in response to yesterday's police action against Ramdev and his followers in Delhi, and Congress leaders' remarks that Ramdev should stick to yoga -- appear in the editorial of its mouthpiece Saamna.
"If a foreigner Sonia Gandhi can become the political godmother ("guru-mata") of Congress leaders, why can not Ramdev, a citizen of this country, practise politics?" the editorial asked.
But the paper also said that corruption could not be ended by "blowing conch" and fasting.
"The solution is to pull down the corrupt government and put a clean, transparent, people's government in place," the paper said.
It also criticised the UPA government for the defense that Ramdev did not have permission for a hunger strike at Ramlila grounds. "If that is so, why were the senior UPA ministers going after him, to persuade him not to go ahead with the fast?" the paper asked.
The editorial also said that Ramdev himself was responsible for the fiasco, as there was no need to launch another hunger-strike within a few weeks of Anna Hazare's successful agitation at Jantar Mantar.
