Ramdev opposes 'high' telecast fees on devotional TV channels

Baba Ramdev on 17 January attacked the government for imposing high tax on telecasting devotional TV channels like Aastha, Arihant and Vedic.

"The government was demanding 1-1 lakh rupees from all us. To which, we said that please don't impose tax on sadhus and saints. You are religious people, you love your country, you follow religion but we hope to get free from it, because then if people want to hear or see any baba's discourse live, baba would have to give One Lakh Rupees per day from his own pocket. A baba can't afford so much of money. The government wants Rs. 32 crore in total to show all the channels like Aastha and Vedic."

The Patanjali founder also added that "it would be really shameful, if we would have to give money even in the name of faith and I never expected such kind of behaviour from this government."

Ramdev was speaking at an event to mark the launch of 'Aastha' mobile app in New Delhi.

The app is claimed to be the first of its kind, which will help users in getting their desired spiritual content. It will include programmes from spiritual TV channels like Aastha, Arihant and etc.

"This is an iconic moment for India, when it comes to publicise about spirituality. People would be able to see all the live programmes of all the four channels on the app. They can also see the repeat telecasts of all the programmes that came in nine days back," said the yoga guru.

The content on the app will also be available in regional languages like Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya, Bangla and Marathi.

The app will also have also beam videos of Ramdev's yoga camps as well as his discourses, which will be dubbed in regional languages for wider reach.

Aastha plans to soon to launch its Tamil, Telugu and Malaylam channels. Ramdev said that the infrastructure is ready for the channels to go live. 

-ANI