Accessibility links

Breaking News

Indian Yoga Guru Hospitalized During Anti-Corruption Fast


A doctor inspects the health of Indian yoga guru Baba Ramdev at Ramdev's ashram in Haridwar, India, June 10, 2011.
A doctor inspects the health of Indian yoga guru Baba Ramdev at Ramdev's ashram in Haridwar, India, June 10, 2011.

A popular Indian yoga guru has been hospitalized on the seventh day of his hunger strike aimed at pressuring the government to take action against corruption.

Baba Ramdev's spokesman told reporters that the guru was taken to a hospital in the northern India town of Dehradun Friday for dehydration and a low pulse rate.

Doctors later said his condition had stabilized and that he was conscious.

Ramdev has been fasting since Saturday, demanding a return of so-called black money, cash stashed in foreign bank accounts and used to pay bribes.

Baba Ramdev rallies supporters, June 6, 2011 (AP).

Early Sunday, police used batons and teargas to break up Ramdev's public hunger strike in New Delhi, saying the number of his followers exceeded the 5,000-person permit for a yoga camp.

Ramdev then moved his protest to his north Indian ashram in Haridwar.

The yoga guru's protest campaign is part of a public push to demand government accountability for several corruption scandals, including the sale of mobile phone licenses at below market rates which is said to have cost the government up to $40 billion.

Some information for this report was provided by AP.

XS
SM
MD
LG