“Modi said in a statement that this program was only about human welfare, about freeing the universe from stress and about spreading the message of love, peace, unity and goodwill”, in a speech before the 35-minute session that was being marked across the country.
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Not only Muslims, some Christian groups were also upset that the yoga classes were being organized during their Sunday mass. There were many other groups that were concerned about the time and money spent on orgnising such an event.
Hundreds gathered in Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, to honour the ancient practice, while more than 2,000 yoga enthusiasts struck a pose in Taiwan’s capital, Taipei.
Around 200 countries around the world were expected to host yoga events on Sunday.
Dressed in all-white kurta-pyjama and a tricolour scarf, 64-year-old Modi took everyone by surprise by performing a variety of postures including Vajrasan and Padmasan along with almost 40,000 people on red mats on Rajpath in a 30-minute mass outdoor yoga session from 7:00am that aimed at qualifying for the Guinness Book of Records.
Chinese perform yoga under the instructions of Indian yoga teachers at a hotel banquet hall to mark the global Yoga Day, in Changping District, on the outskirts of Beijing, China, Sunday, June 21, 2015.
Shripad Naik, the AYUSH minister, said that the day would be celebrated at Delhi’s Rajpath, a boulevard that connects the presidential palace to India Gate, on a grand scale.
Many believe Prime Minister Modi has championed the World Yoga Day in a bid to reclaim India’s heritage.
But in the birthplace of yoga, the government is being criticised for turning it into a public-relations exercise. “If that were true, people working in the circus would be called yogis”, Modi said, before he adopted a variety of poses of the ancient form of exercise on Rajpath.
“The government organizes these hyped-up events”, said Sumita Rani, a primary school teacher in South Delhi. Modi – a yoga practitioner for many years – said the day would mark a new era of peace.
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“I will press that I have come here and participated in the worldwide Day of Yoga with Satguru Vasudevji”. Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj is in New York for a massive Yoga Day event there. “This city is as filthy as ever”.
