YES, BLACKENING of Baba Ramdev's face is akin to getting slippers or other types of footwear thrown at the leaders and, unless they are willing to accept such treatments from the public, they can never become real leaders and can never improve their popularity ratings.

Baba Ramdev, as one is aware, has taken upon himself the enormous responsibility to get back the Black Money that has been stashed away in foreign banks by Indians.

His intentions are noble and it would, no doubt, be a herculean task – but, the Yoga Guru seems to be determined. Blackening of anyone’s face should be perceived as an example of the love and affection that one has with the one who wants to uphold the ideals of leaders.

Baba Ramdev is no exception – he is an aspiring leader. He has already shown that his heart bleeds for the downtrodden. He has no apparent attachment to worldly matters, he has distanced himself from the world of the rich and the affluent, his dress style shows that he feels dress is nothing but a means to hide the nudity. That is all that matters.

Hence, getting his face blackened in the incident related to the 2008 Batla House encounter in a press conference is an action that is a stray one and the person who had dared to do it should not be victimized. He should be pardoned because he did not know what he was doing. The man got supposedly angry at Baba's remarks that Batla House encounter was not a staged gunbattle.