New Delhi, July 28: A feature in America's leading daily The New York Times compares yoga guru Baba Ramdev to United States President Donald Trump. Similar to the latter, the NYT feature predicts, Ramdev will eventually rise to the top of the nation's polity.

The newspaper claims that Ramdev will be a strong candidate for India's Prime Minister, if he decides to take the direct leap into politics. The piece, titled 'The Billionaire Yogi Behind Modi’s Rise', credits him for the meteoric rise of Narendra Modi in Indian politics.

"Ramdev has been a prominent voice on the Hindu right, and his tacit endorsement during the landmark 2014 campaign helped bring Prime Minister Narendra Modi to power. He appeared alongside Modi on several occasions, singing the leader’s praises and urging Indians to turn out for him. Ramdev has called Modi “a close friend,” and the prime minister publicly lauds Patanjali’s array of ayurvedic products — medicines, cosmetics and foodstuffs," the article says.

Meanwhile, to validate his comparison to Trump, NYT shares the canny similarities between the business empires owned by the two leaders. The daily also talks about their TV-friendly personalities as similar to Trump (before being elected as the President), Ramdev is seen on a range of television shows.

“In his own way, Ramdev is India’s answer to Donald Trump, and there is much speculation that he may run for prime minister himself. Like Trump, he heads a multibillion-dollar empire. And like Trump, he is a bombastic TV personality whose relationship with truth is elastic; he cannot resist a branding opportunity — his name and face are everywhere in India,” the newspaper wrote.

The feature further claims that if Ramdev enters into the electoral fray, he could arguably be the strongest Prime Minister India has ever seen. The "blissful demeanours" of the yoga guru are far more influential than Trump's "growls and sneers", NYT said, further adding that Ramdev's "namastes" will whitewash his inclination towards reactionary elements and act as a cover for his "endorsement" of the Hindu Right.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 28, 2018 05:15 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).