It’s really very disheartening and shameful that India is now hostage to the likes of Baba Ramdev whose recent forays into the matters, which best suit those people whose job is to run the government, has left a bad taste and left one wondering where we are heading to. Baba, who is a Yoga Guru and who has thrown his lot behind Anna Hazare on the issue of the implementation of the much publicized anti-corruption Lokpal Bill, has come up with another issue which he seems determined to take to its logical conclusion, come what may. The issue is of black money stashed abroad.

There is no doubt the issue is a genuine one and it concerns all Indians. According to the available data, close to $462 billion are stashed away in the many tax havens abroad. This accounts for 50% of the India’s GDP. But the way in which the controversial Baba has gone about taking the government and the country as his hostage is really something which not many concerned people will be comfortable about. Even more shameful is the government’s reaction to Baba’s threats and tantrums.

The central government and the Congress Party led by none other than the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi are bending backwards to appease the angry baba, who is highly theatrical and unconstitutional in his approach. His fast unto death at the Ramila Grounds of Delhi has sent waves of panic amongst the government corridors.

At a time when the government and the involved ministers should be doing their duties, for which they are there in the first place, they are busy devoting their valuable time, energy and the Indian taxpayer’s hard earned money on appeasing the saffron-robed Baba, who, himself, at times, seems highly confused as to why he is really looking for.

One believes that the baba is illegally arm-twisting the democratically elected government and hogging the limelight for a cause which needs to be addressed through constitutional means. One also suspects that he is just trying to be one up on his colleague Anna Hazare who started a similar movement not long back with almost same intensity and same methods.

This leads us to some pressing questions: Why the likes of Baba Ramdev are able to take the government of the day their hostages every now and then at the slightest of pretexts? Why such elements are given over publicity by the news starved media? Why the common men make such people their heroes and support them? We need to find an answer to these vital questions at an earliest opportunity. We must also do something urgently to stop such events from taking place.