Swami Ramdev wants to enter politics

HEALING THE WORLD? Yoga guru Swami Ramdev said he wants to contribute to politics.

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Hong Kong: Indian yoga guru Swami Ramdev, who has helped popularise ancient fitness regimens and traditional ayurvedic medicine in different parts of the world, wants to contribute to politics now to realise "the India of my dreams".

"I have political ambitions, but not to grab power. I want to change the way of life and thoughts of those who are in power," the 55-year-old guru said.

"I hate the country's political system. It paints a negative picture of our country abroad," Swami Ramdev told IANS in an informal chat aboard the Superstar Virgo, off the South China Sea.

He is conducting on board the luxury cruise ship a five-day course in yoga and pranayam, a breathing exercise, for 1,000 people from 15 countries.

Seated on the deck of his luxury suite on the 10th floor of one of the world's largest luxury liners, Swami Ramdev said he wanted to see the reins of the country in the hands of those who are "farsighted, humble, enterprising and transparent".

"The leadership is weak. People are not willing to listen to the leaders. The current crop of politicians is thinking short term and is trying to divide people in the name of caste, creed and religion. It cuts across party lines," he said.

The guru, who came across as introspective and deeply concerned about the state of Indian polity, said India was the only country where a peon (office messenger) was punished for a crime and forced out of job while murderers and criminals with police records were allowed to become legislators or MPs.

"I want to create a leader from among the masses that control 50 percent of the country's wealth. The law-makers will have to be accountable, have clean minds and must put national interests above everything else," he said.

According to him, politics had become a business and India badly needs a "king who is restrained, honest and universal in approach to politics".

Swami Ramdev said one way to ensure clean governance was to make voting mandatory. "Thirty-two countries across the world have 100 per cent compulsory voting, so why not India?"

The guru said the revolution in thought that he wanted to bring about was possible through yoga.