Left Story

 ONE LOOK AT THE MAN and you realise how yogic exoticism merges seamlessly with raw ordinariness: a wiry frame in saffron, a beard blowing in the wind from the Ganga, and his hair tied in a loose bun. This is India’s most kinetic yogi, known for yoga as much as his subversion of the marketplace. An ascetic who has spawned a pan-Indian cultural revolution. The bestselling brand of the spiritual super bazaar. The sanyasi who celebrates both soul and sinews. His journey from the anonymity of the Indian countryside to national mindspace is an epic of homespun ingenuity. Still, Baba Ramdev guffaws at his own cult. When I meet him in his second-floor office of the sprawling Patanjali Food Park in Haridwar on a Saturday mid-morning, he betrays no sign of a man whose day begins at 3.30 am with a cup of gooseberry juice. His stamina seems extraordinary. Originally from Alipur village of Haryana’s Mahendragarh district, he had dropped out of school after Class VIII. Fifty years old now, Baba is unofficially credited with the demystification and democratisation of yoga in India. In the arena of political discourse, his breakthrough moment came in June 2011, when he held a mass agitation against black money at Delhi’s Ramlila grounds. A jittery Congress-led Government had deputed five senior ministers, led by Pranab Mukherjee, to receive him at the capital’s airport when he arrived for it. But he was implacable. As his crowd of listeners swelled, the Government in panic decided to crack down on the protest, citing a flimsy reason: that his presence near a minority-dominated area could cause communal tension. In a ham-handed operation at midnight, the crowd was subjected to a lathi charge. Baba fled