Tourism Minister Subodh Kant Sahay,who was one of the key negotiators with Ramdev,today said the government should have promptly reached out to the people to explain the rationale for the June 5 crackdown. He also said that the government had decided long back that if the Baba did not leave Ramlila Maidan on his own,we will remove him. The police action was a case of good intention,bad strategy, Sahay said at the Idea Exchange programme at The Indian Express on Wednesday. The government,Sahay said,had been prepared to send the Baba out of Delhi from the Claridges hotel itself,had the talks on the eve of his fast failed. But the plan was changed after Ramdevs aide Acharya Balkrishna gave the contentious written undertaking. From day one,our intention was not to allow it (the fast) to take place. We had decided long back that if he does not leave (Ramlila Maidan),we will remove him, Sahay said. During the Claridges negotiations,however,the Baba said he could not call off the fast because his followers were already on their way to Delhi. It was at this point that Balkrishna offered to give it in writing that Ramdev would call off the fast the following day. Once the Ramlila gathering had been broken up,however,the government was slow to follow up,Sahay said. The governments process of reaching out to people is slow because of which confusion arises. From our side,we should have immediately spoken about our intention. Somehow there was a mistake that we could not show our intention as to why we did it. On Sunday itself we should have come forth from our side, he said. While we cannot justify the police action,beyond a point,there was a strategy that if people had gathered by morning,it could not have been done. If Ramdev had removed himself from the crowd,this incident would not have happened, the minister said. When faced with such situations,the government must be prepared to go into campaign mode quickly,Sahay said. Activists always raise the issue and the government takes it as a priority but the government never goes into campaign mode. It is high time we must go on campaign mode so that people must know what we are doing. In that we are lacking, he said. Sahay revealed that Ramdev was very happy with the governments response to his demands when he had met him in Delhi about a fortnight before the proposed fast. The yoga guru had said then that he would fast for only three days. He had repeated the same commitment when ministers met him at the airport. It was the decision of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs to send Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee along with the other ministers to the airport,Sahay said.
