Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi addresses BJP supporters at the dharna in support of Baba Ramdev in Patna and (above) Ramdev’s supporters protest at Ambedkar Chowk in Gaya on Monday. Pictures by Nagendra Kumar Singh and Suman

Patna, June 6: Supporters of yoga practitioner Baba Ramdev and several political parties, including the BJP, today held a nationwide protest against his forceful eviction from his fast at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi in the early hours of June 5.

BJP’s 24-hour protest spread across several districts in Bihar, including Patna, Darbhanga, Motihari and Raxaul. The protesters decried the Centre’s crackdown on the Baba and called the action “undemocratic”.

Deputy chief minister of Bihar Sushil Kumar Modi said: “The Centre should apologise to Baba Ramdev for its misbehaviour with a saint.”

Modi said history has enough evidence to prove that people have never forgiven those who have tried to humiliate the saints. “Both the British government and the central government were ousted by men like Mahatma Gandhi and Jaiprakash Narayan,” he said.

Modi, while addressing about 100 odd party workers at JP roundabout near Gandhi Maidan, echoed the party’s central leadership while criticising the crackdown on Baba Ramdev. “This (the action) reminded me of the Emergency days,” Modi said.

Modi accused senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh of making remarks against Ramdev at the behest of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Ganga Prasad, BJP’s deputy leader in Legislative Council, Kumhrar legislator Arun Kumar Sinha, Bankipore legislator Nitin Navin among other senior party leaders were also present on the occasion.

In Darbhanga, Lok Sabha MP from the district Kirti Azad, Town MLA Sanjay Sarawagi, district BJP president Amarnath Gami, BJP’s state secretary Suraj Narayan Mehta and several party workers took part in a 24-hour satyagraha.

Azad told The Telegraph that the crackdown reminded him of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

Hundreds of Ramdev supporters and political parties as well as the members of Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh staged a daylong dharna at different places in Motihari and Raxaul and protested the Centre’s action against the Baba and also the men and women who had taken part in his satyagraha at Ramlila Maidan. They condemned the beating up of old persons, women and children in the incident.