Bachelor Baba claims he was denied US visa

Yoga guru Baba Ramdev, who heads the Rs 4,500crore Patanjali Group, was once denied a visa to the United States citing his bachelor status and not having a bank account.

But later it invited him and gave him a 10-year visa when he was to address the United Nations, which is headquartered in New York, the Yoga guru revealed on Saturday.

Speaking at the Global Investor Summit here, Ramdev recounted how he was first denied a visa and later offered a visa.

"When for the first time I applied for a US visa, I was denied. I asked for reasons, they said Babaji you don't have a bank account, which I still don't have, and you are unmarried.

"There could be some issues there, they said, but I insisted there is no possibility of any of that. Yet they denied me a visa," Ramdev said.

He, however, did not indicate the year in which he had applied for the visa.

"But when they had to call me for the UN programme, they on their own gave me a 10-year visa," he said. "This is a separate matter".

Ramdev, who shared the dais with several industrialists, including Anil Ambani and Gopichand Hinduja as well as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, said spiritual leaders are anyway global citizens.

"I was asked by Finance Minister in what capacity was I here as. I am here as a global citizen," he remarked.

His Patanjali group is reported to be considering investing Rs 500-crore in setting up a food processing unit at Dhar district in Madhya Pradesh. Patanjali Ayurveda is considered among the fastest- growing consumer products brand with products ranging from kitchen staples, nutrition, cosmetics to personal care products. PTI