Congress ally Ajit Singh's party backs Ramdev campaign

Another Congress ally, the Rashtriya Lok Dal on Thursday came out in support of yoga guru Baba Ramdev's campaign against black money and corruption, with the latter saying he will put a fresh proposal before the government during the coming monsoon session of Parliament.

In a brief meeting with Ramdev at his residence, Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh said the use of black money in electoral process is a bigger issue and a threat to the nation's democratic set-up.

Assuring that efforts were being made to address the issue of black money, he said, "I think the bigger problem is use of black money in election process which is a threat to the democratic set-up."

Observing that Ramdev has helped in awakening the people on this issue, he said there is more black money in the country than what is stored abroad.

"In last Lok Sabha polls, the Election Commission tried hard to stop the use of black money and it tried again during the recent state assembly elections. But even it (EC) has not achieved complete success in this, on the contrary it is on the rise."

He said proper agreements would be required with the individual countries where the black money is stored.

"There are several nations and proper agreement will be required with each of them... Every country has its own law. There are the banks in the world which are not ready to share the information," Singh said.

On whether his party supports Ramdev's movement against black money, Singh said, "This is not a question of political parties... It is a big issue which requires that all political parties and people come together on it."

Ramdev reiterated that his movement was not against any political party, "but purely in favour of the country and against black money".

On his meeting with the political parties, Ramdev said, "In the coming days we will meet more parties, whether it be the Left Parties or the National Democratic Alliance members. We are meeting top leader of all political parties."

The solution will definitely come up when we will be able to reach a consensus, right from the level of gram panchayats to the Lok Sabha, he said.

After meeting political leaders for another week, Ramdev plans to hold similar meetings with gram sabhas and gram panchayats.

When asked till when he plans to hold these meetings, he said, "We will put the proposal again with the government in the monsoon session of Parliament."

He has also sought time to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi.