THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Close on the heels of the Supreme Court and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) serving notices on the UPA Government, the Opposition BJP has demanded a ‘Supreme Court-monitored inquiry’ into the police sweep at the Ramlila Grounds, where Yoga guru Baba Ramdev was holding his fast unto death.Addressing a meet-the-press programme here on Thursday, BJP national spokesperson Prakash Javadekar demanded an apology from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi. “We condemn this barbaric act and demand a Supreme Court-monitored inquiry. We demand an apology from Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi because (HRD Minister) Kapil Sibal said that the decision (for the police crack-down) was taken at the highest level,” Javadekar said.“We say that the situation was avoidable,” he said, responding to the Prime Minister’s remark that the situation had been unavoidable. In attacking Baba Ramdev and Anna Hazare, the Congress was trying to duck the main issue of corruption, he said. The Congress party was thwarting the Lokpal Bill as well as attempts to recover large sums stashed away in foreign banks, he said.On Union Home Minister P Chidambaram’s take that Ramdev’s stir was RSS-backed, Javadekar said that the RSS was not a banned organisation. “If you want to ban it, ban it, and face the music,” he said. The irony of the Congress-led UPA Government is that it was allowing separatist groups to speak right ‘under the nose’ of Parliament, while denying the right to patriotic groups.On charges that Ramdev was spending crores on his campaign, Javadekar said the BJP was supporting not the man, but the cause. The BJP did not support violence, he said, on Ramdev’s statement that he would raise a 11,000-strong army of volunteers. He also rejected the argument that Ramdev had usurped the Opposition’s space in launching a campaign against corruption. “We are the real crusaders of the campaign against corruption and black money. And we will continue to be so.”MEDIA COUNCILThe Press Council should be expanded to a ‘Media Council’ by including the electronic media, Javadekar, who is also a member of the Press Council, said on Thursday. The Press Council Act should be amended to make its directives mandatory, he said, adding that the Media Council can act as a self-regulatory mechanism for the media.
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