New Delhi: Demanding that the Prime Minister order an inquiry into the alleged coal allocation scam between 2004 and 2009, yoga guru Ramdev on Thursday said he cannot escape the "moral responsibility" as he was then in-charge of the department.
"It is very unfortunate that when this mega coal scam took place, the person who is wearing a big badge of honesty, Prime Minister was the incharge of this Ministry. He cannot escape the moral responsibility as the scam took place under his nose," Ramdev told reporters.
He said, "In order to fulfill his (Prime Minister) moral obligation, the whole country will see whether he orders an inquiry and seeks what kind of repentance for himself. Country will wish to know how moral our Prime Minister is."
Replying to queries on the allegations against him for evading tax, Ramdev claimed the government has never been able to prove these charges against his trusts.
"In 2003,04 and 05, the Sales Tax department had sent us a notice and we replied to it and won the case. But then the case was taken to the tribunal but they could not prove that our trust had evaded any tax," he said.
When asked how much tax was paid by him, he said that he does not look after the financial matters but these records are available on the website of his trust.
"You can check the website where entire financial record of the trust is published. We have not evaded any tax. We paid the tax which was due. We have received more than 50 notices.
Has the government been able to prove any allegation against me", he said.
Replying to a question on his association with civil rights activist Anna Hazare, Ramdev said, "We are very much with Anna Hazare. There are only three main issues i.e. black money, corruption and change of corrupt administration.
So in matters of change in administration, Lokpal and black money we were together and we will remain so."
Stating that he will not be able to attend Anna Hazare's protest on 25 March due to prior commitments, he said the dates of such protests in future will be decided with mutual discussion.
Asked whether the number of scams which were exposed during the UPA government indicates towards a weak opposition, he said, "I would not like to comment on opposition parties as they keeps supporting us on some ground or other."
Replying to a query on Adarsh scam, he said, "No scam takes place without the consent of politicians. It is impossible that Adarsh scam took place without the knowledge of the politicians. Firstly action should be taken against politicians only."
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