Ramdev's damaging rant

The irony may have been lost on Baba Ramdev as he brought up the subject of mass murder at a peace rally he was addressing. To say on a public platform got up to promote unity and understanding in the wake of riots over reservation in Haryana that lakhs of people could have been decapitated if not for there being rule of law in the country betrays the devious agenda of some determined to pursue a definitive collision course.

Even the most patriotic-minded citizens may not wish to keep stressing their loyalty to the country by chanting slogans or verses at every turn. Should everyone, including the minority groups who believe in monotheism, be expected to sign loyalty pledges to the country every day just to please a section of people who, in the guise of triggering a debate on nationalism, are aiming more at a social conflagration?

Ramdev, who lends his name to a health food and additives empire, was referring to a particular politician who had postured that he would rather face beheading than quote nationalistic slogans. Ramdev needs no reminder that this politician — the MIM legislator Akbaruddin Owaisi — was arrested for making a hate speech three years ago. Were the same yardstick to apply to Ramdev’s vile utterance, he too would have to be booked for a hate speech.

The norms of the very rule of law that he quotes as standing in the way of his beheading lakhs of people should be used against him. This sustained campaign to bait people and divide society must be nipped in the bud. The political will to tread the right path has been distinctly lacking.