Ramdev declares his assets, hides more, reveals less

New Delhi: Baba Ramdev on Thursday made an attempt to silence his critics by giving details of his business empire. The yoga guru listed capital and expenses of his trusts but remained silent on companies run by his trusts. In the end he ended up hiding more than what he revealed.

A smiling Acharya Balkrishna declared the overall worth of Brand Baba Ramdev - an empire estimated to be worth Rs 1177 crore by Baba's own admission.
"We are taking this first step to respond to all the allegations that have been levelled against us by the government," said Balkrishna.
But Baba Ramdev and his aides were careful in giving details of their assets, only revealing wealth accumulated in trusts exempted under IT laws and remaining mum on companies floated by them.


Baba's net worth
The Divyaoga Mandir Trust has a capital base of Rs 249.63 crores
The Patanjali Yogpeeth Trust has Rs 164.80 crores
Bharat Swabhiman Trust has Rs 9.97 crores
Acharya Kulumbh Siskhshan Sansthan has a capital base of Rs 1.69 crores
But these disclosures also throw up several questions:
How many companies have really been floated by Baba Ramdev and his associates?
What is the nature of business that these companies are involved in?
Who are the big donors for Ramdev's trusts that have an accumulated wealth of Rs 426 cr?
Why hasn’t Ramdev declared his Income Tax Returns as well if his empire is over a Rs 1000 cr?
What is the overall value of land that’s been allotted to Baba Ramdev and his trusts or companies?
"The main reason for floating companies was that there were things that couldn’t be done through our trusts," said Baba Ramdev.
Perhaps Ramdev realises that the government heat now is squarely focussed on him. Hence he also chose to scale down his fast by having some honey and lime - a step he chose to take after a visit from the DM of Haridwar.