Subhas Chandra Pattanayak
Ramdev has ended his acrobatics of hunger-strike on black-money matter to escape medico-legal prosecution.
But in course of the hunger-strike it has come to light that his own coffers carry money to the tune of around two thousand crores, which await confirmation through official investigation.
Ramdev has not disclosed the amount of wealth he possesses.
It was seen that when medico-legal prosecution against him for attempt to commit suicide became imminent as per practice in vogue in India, a stage-managed termination of the fast to preempt prosecution was contemplated for his face-saving. At this stage, came to his aid, art of living counselor Ravi Shankar, against whom allegations of land grabbing have hit the headlines many times. People of the country do not know how much property he possesses, though his style of living is highly gorgeous. He has not voluntarily disclosed his wealth too.
Persons of Ramdev, Ravi Shankar type are not clearly known on basis of wealth they have acquired and operate.
But difficult it is to find a modern ‘guru’ whose wealth has not generated speculations and / or controversies.
Sathya Sai’s black money empire discussed during his lifetime and focused after his death or the black wealth of Emara Math Mahant in Orissa’s Puri, frozen into hundreds of large slabs of silver, are just indicative of black money the so-called spiritual persons in India possess and operate.
But people are not yet conscious of how hazardous are these sacred operators of secret wealth.
They only know that politics being the last resort of scoundrels and the scoundrels in political power operating through salaried officials in nexus with avaricious operators of trade and industry, the country is drowned in corruption and these three categories of fellows – politicians, officials and trade tycoons – have stashed Indian wealth in their respective black coffers in foreign banks. So, there is a new awakening to spot these black coffers and retrieve therefrom the wealth of the country.
To derail this awakening and divert public attention from their own coffers, Ramdev type of persons have tried their tricks.
The people of this country have their birthright to retrieve their wealth from the black coffers whomsoever they may be belonging to. Hence, over and above politicians, bureaucrats and traders, all the fellows under atypical attires – be of saffron color as Ramdev’s or of white color as Ravi Shankar’s – be made to disclose their wealth that they operate in own or in any trust name under judicial affidavits and let them be investigated into in earnest.
Neither the ruling Congress nor the main Opposition BJP and their part-time coalition partners can take steps towards this, because thereby their own leaders’ secret coffers will come out into public gaze.
Therefore, patriotic intelligentsia of India, committed to a political economy of a new pattern of equalism where every private wealth beyond a ceiling would be confiscated and private ownership on medium and major means of production would be banned, should come out to take the leadership of the new awakening against corruption and black money.
Otherwise, people shall achieve it by violent means.