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Indian Americans stand up for Baba Ramdev
"Overseas Friends of BJP (USA) condemns United Progressive Alliance government in the strongest terms for such a barbaric, undemocratic and brutal police action against peaceful Satyagrahis protesting against corruption and black money," OFBJP, which aligns itself with Bharatiya Janata Party, said in a statement.
"This is the beginning of the end of UPA government, when downfall nears the person gets deluded (Vinashkale viprit buddhi), that is what has happened to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi," it said.
Adapa Prasad, the national president of OFBJP, went to India last week to join in this Satyagrah against corruption, it said, adding he is scheduled to address a press conference to register OFBJP's protest and demand resignation of the prime minister.Click NEXT to read further...
'Ramdev crackdown brings back memories of Emergency days'
Referring to the police action at the Ramlila Grounds over the weekend, OFBJP said, the only fault of the volunteers was that they were demanding the government to enact tough laws against corruption and bring back black money stashed abroad.
"The action of UPA government reminds us the midnight anti-democratic action on June 26, 1975 when Emergency was clamped on India by the same Congress party which is leading the UPA government now, and thousands of innocent people were arrested and brutalised that day," it said.'Democracy in India is in danger'
"The first and foremost responsibility of any functioning democracy is to protect the civil rights of its citizens, even when they speak against the sitting government," Rishi Bhutada, a member of the HAF executive council, said in a statement.
"When a government acts contrary to that principle, it risks ruling by tyranny, as seen in the actions of a government that would attack one of India's respected Hindu religious leaders and his unarmed supporters," he said.
HAF's assistant Director Jay Kansara said that the gratuitous, middle-of-the-night attack on Baba Ramdev and his tens of thousands of peaceful supporters was clearly an attempt to distract attention from the government's unwillingness to curb corruption within its ranks.
"It is a sad irony that Saturday's attack is contrary to our words in India's support, and we call upon the UPA government to reaffirm its commitment to religious pluralism and democracy in light of this week's events," HAF said.
'Indians determined to take back government from their corrupt rulers'
"Baba Ramdev's intent behind this movement is to bring back approximately USD nine trillion stolen from poor Indians and stashed in foreign countries; and he is determined to reverse this awful trajectory," the New-York based Indian American Intellectual Forum said in a statement.
Under no circumstances it was supposed to create a law and order problem as is being claimed by the Central Government, Forum's president Narain Kataria said.
"Baba Ramdev's allegation that there was a sinister conspiracy to kill him has to be investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation," he said, adding the reign of repression let lose against thousands of peaceful men, women and children by 5,000 Delhi policemen should be vehemently condemned with the contempt it deserves.
It is a naked fascism as practiced by dictators in Middle Eastern countries, Kataria alleged. "The Indians are determined to take back Government of India from their corrupt rulers. Make no mistake; they are waking up silently, slowly but surely. They are not going to stop till the goal is reached," the forum said.