From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: On the ninth International Yoga Day, Congress on Wednesday tweeted thanking former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru for “popularising yoga”, to which senior party leader Shashi Tharoor replied amplifying in the affirmative giving credit to the BJP-led Centre too.
The Congress tweeted a picture of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru performing Yoga and said, “On International Day of Yoga, we thank Pt. Nehru, who was instrumental in popularising Yoga and even made it a part of national policy.”
Reacting to the Congress Tweet, former Minister for External Affairs and a UN Diplomat Tharoor replied in his Tweet saying “Indeed! We should also acknowledge all those who revived & popularised Yoga, including the government.”
“As I have argued for decades, yoga is a vital part of our soft power across the world & it’s great to see it recognized,” Tharoor added.
This year’s theme for International Yoga Day is ‘Yoga for Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’.
President Droupadi Murmu performed Yoga at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Wednesday.. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh participated in a yoga day event onboard INS Vikrant.
Prime Minister Modi, who is on a three-day state visit to the US, will perform Yoga at the lawns of UN Headquarters. The unique yoga session led by Prime Minister Modi in New York will see participation from top UN officials and envoys from across the world.
In a video message on Yoga Day, Prime Minister Modi said that Indians have always welcomed new ideas and celebrated the country’s rich diversity.
“The coming together of more than 180 countries on India’s call is historic and unprecedented,” the Prime Minister said.
In fact, all governments in independent India have contributed to popularizing Yoga both within the country as well as abroad. While earlier governments encouraged private efforts to spread yoga and its benefits and extended support to many institutions, the Modi government went a step further asking the Un to declare June 21 International Yoga Day.
