Yoga guru Ramdev on Monday, 13 January, said actor Deepika Padukone should get herself acquainted with socio-political issues in the country before taking any "big decisions" and should appoint people like him as her advisors, who will give her a "fair insight" into vital issues.
Padukone has been drawing flak from right wing leaders and trolls for expressing solidarity with the students on the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus in New Delhi who were protesting against the 5 January violence.
"Deepika's efficiency as an actor is a different ball game. However, she should first study social, political and cultural issues and understand more about our country. After acquiring this knowledge, she should take big decisions," Ramdev told reporters in Indore in Madhya Pradesh.
I feel that Deepika Padukone should have persons like Swami Ramdev for the right piece of advice, he quipped.
Strongly supporting the new citizenship act, Ramdev said that even those people who do not even know the full form of the CAA are using "foul language" against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"The prime minister and the home minister have said that the law was not meant to snatch citizenship but rather to grant it, but people are still igniting fires over it," he said.
Ramdev said some people are creating chaos over the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
“They are even raising slogans for ‘Jinnah Wali Azadi’. Where did this slogan come from? Such protests are tarnishing the image of the country and its institutions,” he alleged.
Ramdev claimed two crore people are living in India illegally.
"No country can be permitted to be used as a dumping yard. No illegal citizen should be allowed to live in India.
If protesters opposing the proposed NRC have any alternative proposal, they should come forward with it," he said.
Hailing Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar, Ramdev said the Indian freedom struggle was incomplete without the former.
"To tarnish the whole character of a person for just one or two things is an extremely shallow act," he said.
When asked about Congress leaders terming Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as Indira Gandhi, he said, “If a grandchild emerges like her grandmother, then that trait fetches glory to the entire clan, and we will welcome it”.
He said the Opposition should be as strong as the ruling party for making democracy robust.
Ramdev demanded the Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) should be annexed to India.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)