Ramdev denied permission for yoga camp in Vadodara

VADODARA: The city police have cancelled the permission granted to yoga guru Baba Ramdev for organizing a camp in Vadodara on Saturday. The permission was turned down after the officials received new guidelines from the Election Commission of India (ECI).
Police had earlier granted permission to Ramdev and decided to monitor his camp to ensure that no political campaigning happens at the venue.The Congress had complained to the ECI, alleging that the yoga guru was coming to Vadodara to campaign for chief minister Narendra Modi.
Ramdev has been crisscrossing the country to campaign for some BJP candidates. "The new ECI guidelines state that if there is possibility of such programmes being used for political campaigning, then the permission shouldn't be granted. Also, the ECI states that background of the organizer and the participants should be checked to see if they have any political affiliations," said Satish Sharma, police commissioner.
"Ramdev has in the past used the stage to promote candidates of a particular party. There were chances that he might have done the same in Vadodara. Therefore, we decided to cancel the permission for his yoga camp," Sharma added.
The ECI guidelines dated April 18 state that, 'It has come to notice of the commission that in certain places while permission was sought by certain organizations to organize non-political activities like yoga shivirs, the platform was being used for political campaigning in clear violation of the conditions on which permission was granted."
The ECI has asked district election officers and returning officers to check antecedents of such organizations and deny permission if there is any possibility of misuse or if such permission has been misused by the organizer or participants on earlier occasions.
The Congress had pointed out that the yoga camp was being held for free and the leaflets distributed showed that it was being used for political campaigning.