Grand arrangements made, Baba Ramdev satyagraha begins today

Yoga guru Baba Ramdev appeared cracking up as a negotiating senior Union minister claimed signals from him to convert his indefinite fast from Saturday into one or two days of ''Satyagraha'' to register the nationwide revulsion against corruption and then wind up.

He has sought a "face-saving" government package of concrete and time- bound written assurances to put before the mass of people arriving here to join his mega demonstration to take their vote, the minister said. After a Congress core group meeting at the PM's House chaired by Sonia Gandhi approved a draft document as response to his demands, senior ministers huddled at Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's residence for two hours to discuss how to bail out the Yoga guru, without damaging his credibility.

Their prime concern is that the Anna Hazare- led civil society group is trying to close ranks with the Baba, defeating the government's strategy to divide them after the group back- stabbed it despite the government yielding to sit with it to frame the anti-corruption Lokpal Bill.

The importance accorded to the Baba with what he sees as "positive" responses has moved him to consider rolling back the pressure he has built on the government, but he conveyed that he would consider limiting the show to one or two days instead of calling it off, particularly when thousands have set off for Delhi and he has already spent lakhs on the paraphernalia.

The document readied by the Prime Minister and senior ministers and approved by Sonia Gandhi at the core group meeting on Thursday evening may not meet Ramdev's demands "100 per cent" as he wants and yet the government does not want to antagonise him by saying that his demands in the garb of fighting corruption are completely irrational.

The senior ministers meeting at Mukherjee's residence discussed how to convince Baba that the document is the proof of the government's commitment to tackle the very issues he had raised. Subodh Kant Sahay, who has emerged as the key negotiator owing to his long equations with the Baba said the government's difficulty is that his demands involve a host of policy issues unlike the specific demand Hazare put for a joint drafting committee on the Lokpal Bill that could be accepted.

Ramdev, who is spending the night at the Ramlila Grounds close to New Delhi station, has made grand arrangements for the people joining his massive show.