Stop asking such questions… else it won’t be good for you: Ramdev to reporter

Ramdev, co-founder of Patanjali Ayurved, a fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brand, has now decided that inflation and price rise can be matched by “working harder”. He has also openly threatened a journalist who bravely asked him to comment on the rising fuel prices in the country.

“Stop asking such questions now… else it won’t be good for you,” he threatened the journalist who had sought answers from the saffron-clad Ramdev, who had once famously campaigned for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) telling voters that Rs 40 per litre petrol was an achievable dream if the BJP was in power. Now that fuel prices, and inflation continue to soar, speaking at an event in Haryana’s Karnal, Ramdev has told people to “work harder” like he does in these difficult times. Taking the government’s side he said, “If fuel prices are low, they won’t get tax. Then how will they run the country, pay salaries, build roads?”

However, his temper exploded when a journalist asked him about his claims of the past on reducing petrol prices. Ramdev scolded the journalist, attuned him and then appeared to threaten him with dire consequences if he did not stop this line of questioning. “Yes, I said it, Ab kya kar lega (what will you do)? Don’t keep asking such questions. Am I your thekedar who has to keep answering your questions? Just shut up. If you ask again, it is not good.”

The Patanjali brand boss had famously claimed in 2018 that people should vote for “a government that can ensure petrol for ₹ 40 a litre and cooking gas at ₹ 300 a cylinder.” 

Ramdev now “appealed to people to work harder in difficult times” adding that the government needed to “run the country, pay salaries to the army, build roads etc? Yes, inflation should go down, I agree… But people should work hard. Even I, despite being a sanyasi, wake up at 4 in the morning and work till 10 at night,” Ramdev was cheered on by gleeful supporters. On Wednesday both petrol and diesel prices were raised by 80 paise a litre each, now according to NDTV the “total increase in rates in the last nine days to ₹ 5.60 per litre” and petrol in Delhi now costs ₹ 101.01 per litre diesel rates are ₹ 92.27, per litre.

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