Yoga guru Baba Ramdev sparked political controversy in India Saturday by claiming that he was denied a Nobel Prize because he is a "black."
"If I would have been a fair-skinned person, the Nobel Prize would have been awarded to me till now for my work in the field of yoga. But, it has been denied to me because I am black," Ramdev said during a yoga camp in eastern Indian city of Ranchi, according to Indiatvnews.
He also said that many incompetent people have got awards like Nobel while contributions of people like him to society have been ignored.
"Many incompetent and undeserving people seem to have got awards and some people are playing cheap politics on the pretext of returning their awards. The country's image is being tarnished on the international platform," he added, according to The Economic Times.
Ramdev's organization Patanjali Yogapeeth, however, downplayed his statement, saying that he made the remarks in the course of his usual interaction with Yoga enthusiasts during a camp, The Times of India reported.
Baba Ramdev's remarks triggered a storm on social media, with Nobel Prize trending on Twitter. Read some of the tweets below.
Yes. Baba Ramdev deserves the Nobel Prize. Look at him vividly demonstrating the double helix structure of DNA... pic.twitter.com/fjznShH1XV
— Ramesh Srivats (@rameshsrivats) November 7, 2015
Yes, #Ramdev was denied Nobel Prize because he has black beard. Tagore had white beard, Amartya Sen, Kailash Satyarthi had none. — Dipankar. (@deep_anchor) November 7, 2015
Dear Baba Ramdev, if you want the Nobel Prize in Yoga, please start applying Patanjali Fair & Handsome cream.
— Gautam Trivedi (@Gotham3) November 7, 2015
Is a pity about Baba RamDev not getting the Nobel Prize. Maybe the govt can help though? They have a lot of awards to spare. — Naomi Datta (@nowme_datta) November 7, 2015
So Baba Ramdev Ji almost won the Nobel Prize! Hmmm, that makes all of us 7.2 billion people of the world front-runners for the next one.
— Sanjay Jha (@JhaSanjay) November 7, 2015
Very soon Baba Ramdev is going to declare Nobel Prize as unsafe for consumption and will start making it at Patanjali. — Mihir Bijur (@MihirBijur) November 7, 2015
Why does Ramdev want a Nobel prize? Instead move to ban it and have Patanjali Puraskars as an alternative no?
— Rohan (@mojorojo) November 7, 2015
Baba Ramdev says he was denied Nobel prize because of skin color But why does he need Swedish Nobel? He can make his own Patanjali Nobel — The Bad Doctor (@doctoratlarge) November 7, 2015
Ramdev came under fire last week by suggesting that Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan should return the money earned after receiving top civilian honour Padma Shri.
"If he (Shah Rukh Khan) is a true patriot, he should return all the money he earned after winning the Padma Shri to the Prime Ministers's relief fund, in case he plans to return the award," he had said, according to The Times of India.
