Hunger strike called off

Second health check on Ramdev disciples shows they didn't gain weight; agitators to continue Satyagraha

After the 'weight gain' induced conniption on Monday, it was a day of cheery calm yesterday, as Baba Ramdev supporters called off their hunger strike as per the directive of their Guru.u00a0u00a0"The police are still not ready to give us the photocopy of our recorded weight. But we have dropped the issue, as the hunger strike has been withdrawn," said Vijay Varudkar, coordinator of Bharat Swabhiman Trust (BST), run by Baba Ramdev. "We have stopped the hunger strike but will continue with the Satyagraha to support Baba's mission to bring back Rs 400 lakh crore black money from abroad."


Satisfied: Retired HC justice B J Kolse-Patil offers apple juice to
70-year-old Dr Abdul Salam as protesters break their three-day fast.
Pics/Jignesh Mistry

Pomaceous relief
The fast was broken with the intake of apple juice. B J Kolse-Patil, retired judge of the Bombay High Court, offered a tetra pack of apple juice to Dr Abdul Salam (70) to drink. Noted cartoonist Mangesh Tendulkar and senior BST activist Krishna Joshi also participated in offering apple juice to the protestors, amid chants of "Baba sangharsh karo, hum tumhare saath hai".

Earlier on Monday, health-check ups by Sassoon doctors revealed that the protestors on hunger strike had actually gained weight. This was followed by heated arguments between the police, hospital staff and the agitators, who the doctors claimed even threatened them. Later in the night, the police got another weighing machine and the new set of records showed none of the protestors had gained weight. "Thank God, it was proved my real weight had actually gone down by 2 kg," said Rohini Joshi (48), who was part of the hunger strike.

Varudkar said the BST was not given any permission to go on hunger strike. All the government officials including the police, the civic body and the Collector's office have been non-cooperative. "We are thankful to the police that they allowed us to continue the hunger strike at Savarkar Smarak," he said. BST is also supporting Anna Hazare's one-day token strike at Raj Ghat, Delhi.u00a0PI Manohar Joshi of the Deccan Gymkhana police said: "Our responsibility was to maintain peace. Everything went well except the weight gain incident," he said.

Hazare strike
Suresh Pathare, personal assistant to Anna Hazare, said that people from Ralegansiddhi and other districts were supporting Hazare today by staging hunger strike at all the 260 tehsil offices in the state. About 1.3 lakh people are supporting Hazare from across the state," he said.u00a0u00a0