Yoga guru begins fast to fight corruption

India's most celebrated yoga guru has begun a "fast unto death" in a bid to force the government to accept his hardline anti-corruption proposals. Swami Baba Ramdev went ahead with his hunger strike after cabinet ministers dispatched by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh failed in a last-ditch meeting on Friday to persuade the maverick guru to call off his protest. The saffron-robed Ramdev, who has a huge television following for his daily yoga show, has called for the death penalty for government ministers who are proved to be corrupt. Before launching his fast, which is being given wall-to-wall national television coverage in India, he declared to enthusiastic supporters: "Nothing is impossible, everything is possible and we are not going to be defeated." He said he was staging the hunger strike "for the sake of India". The guru, who has wide support from right-wing Hindu groups, has called for Singh's administration to repatriate so-called "black money" -- cash stashed in foreign accounts suspected of being used for bribes and illegal transactions. Swami Ramdev's daily yoga show reaches an estimated 30 million viewers "After all this money is brought back, no one will be hungry, uneducated, unemployed," said the middle-aged Ramdev, who began his protest early in the morning after a pre-dawn yoga session with his followers. Thousands of people gathered in New Delhi's sweltering summer heat to watch Ramdev fast in a tent erected at a sprawling site where a Hindu festival marking the triumph of good over evil is celebrated every year. Thousands more people were expected to join him during the day. The bearded guru, a strict social conservative who claims he can "cure" homosexuality, cancer and AIDS through yoga and other alternative therapies, accused politicians of gaining vast sums "from the people's hard-earned money". "Corrupt people have no religion. All corrupt ministers should be given the death sentence," he said. The Congress government, which has been buffeted by a slew of graft scandals, issued a late-night statement assuring Ramdev and his followers that the maximum penalty for corrupt officials would be "substantially increased". Indian yoga star Swami Ramdev is an eccentric nationalist famed for his televised breathing exercises It also promised speedy trials for people accused of corruption but stayed silent on the guru's demand that they should hang. The government fears the protest by the popular yoga teacher could fuel voter anger over widespread graft. Public outrage at corruption has been mounting over the scandals involving the government, notably a $39 billion telecom scam that has seen one minister arrested. The Times of India said government officials were hopeful the protest could be a "short affair instead of the feared war of nerves" and that the guru might only stage a token weekend strike. Commentators and some inside the ruling Congress party have questioned the government's willingness to placate Ramdev. "Why is the government so afraid of Ramdev?" asked the tabloid Mail Today in a frontpage headline on Saturday, complaining "top ministers do headstands to talk Baba out of his fast plan." Others have said Ramdev and another social activist, 73-year-old Anna Hazare, who fasted for 98 hours in April demanding a tough anti-corruption law, are holding India's democracy to ransom with no mandate from the people.