BeyondHeadlines Investigation Team
New Delhi: Soon after BeyondHeadlines revealed that Yoga guru Baba Ramdev’s firm had donated Rs 11 lakh to BJP before the 2009 general elections, the firm’s head Acharya Balkrishna Maharaj, who is close aide of the Yoga guru, called the BH and gave clarifications.
He accepted the fact that Patanjali Ayurveda, which according to its website aims at curing and preventing common ailments by Ayurvedic medicines, had given a Punjab National Bank cheque of Rs 11 lakh to the Bharatiya Janata Party on March 8, 2009 as donation.
Acharya Balkrishna, who claims to be managing director of Patanjali Ayurveda, said: “Swamiji had no information is that regard. Swamiji does not interfere in the financial matters of the firm.”
Further defending the Yoga guru, he worded that there were many stake holders in the firm and “Swamiji” is also one among them. He said that anyone among our shareholders had donated the sum to the BJP and that the firm had nothing to do with it. “Any stakeholder can donate individually to any party, but it does not mean that the firm in which the person has stake is involved in that,” Acharya Balkrishna said.
Ironically, Acharya Balkrishna forgot that the cheque (no. 859783) had been issued by the firm not by any individual stake holder. When this was pointed out by the BeyondHeadlines, he time and again escaped the question. He further disclosed that Patanjali Ayurveda has many shareholders, including some veteran member of the Smajwadi Party and ruling Congress party.
BeyondHeadlines yesterday broke the story that in March, 2009 Patanjali Ayurved Kendra Pvt. Ltd. had donated Rs 11 lakh to the BJP. (Click here to read full story http://beyondheadlines.in/2011/03/ramdev%E2%80%99s-patanjali-ayurveda-ltd-donated-rs-1100000-to-bjp/)
