New Delhi: The International Day of Yoga is now taking on many political dimensions. The Congress tweeted a photo of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru doing Shirshasha early in the morning, captioning it as ‘Thanks to Pandit Nehru for popularizing yoga and making it a part of national policy’.
But on the contrary, senior Congress leader Shashitharur tweeted that we should thank our Central Government, Prime Minister Modi, Ministry of External Affairs, etc. for reviving and popularizing yoga. The NDA government has made Yoga Day international through the United Nations. As I have been saying for decades, yoga is an important part of our soft power. “It’s good to recognize that,” he said.
Indeed! We should also acknowledge all those who revived & popularized yoga, including our government, @PMOIndia & @MEAIndiafor internationalising #InternationalYogaDay through the @UN. As I have argued for decades, yoga is a vital part of our soft power across the world &… https://t.co/WYZvcecl0Q
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) June 21, 2023
Social media users also expressed displeasure with this tweet of Congress. Some wrote that there should be no politics on this day. Many users recalled Rahul Gandhi’s tweet on Yoga Day 2019. In it, he posted a photo of trained dogs doing yoga and captioned it as New India.
Yoga is a global movement: PM Modi
PM Modi celebrated Yoga Day in New York, USA. In a video message, the Prime Minister said that when the proposal for Yoga Day came up in the United Nations General Assembly in 2014, a record number of countries supported it. Since then, yoga has become a global movement, a global emotion through International Yoga Day. It is historic and unprecedented that more than 180 countries of the world have joined India’s call. Modi will lead the yoga ceremony at the United Nations on Wednesday along with General Assembly President Sabah Korosi and Deputy Secretary Amina Mohammed.
As part of the International Yoga Day today, President Draupadi Murmu, Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, former President Ram Nath Kovind and many dignitaries of the country participated in a yoga program and performed yoga.
