IYD, shameless attempt by Modi govt to usurp yoga: Congress

On the eve of International Yoga Day, Congress today accused the Narendra Modi government of making "brazen and shameless attempts at usurping" the ancient Indian heritage of yoga and turning it into a "propaganda and public relation exercise."
The All India Congress Committee (AICC) also released a photograph of first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru doing yoga, along with a picture and a maxim by Mahatma Gandhi, saying one should expect from others anything only after practising it oneself.
The Modi dispensation is all geared up to mark the day tomorrow with a grand event on the capital's Rajpath, where thousands of health enthusiasts are expected to converge to perform yoga. The government has been promoting the June 21 event citing health benefits of yoga.

Alleging "sheer hollowness" in the government's claim of propagating yoga for health benefits, Congress Communication Department Chairman Randip Surjewala also questioned the "cutting of the health budget by a whopping 17 per cent and reducing budgetary allocation of the yoga".
He said that the Ministry of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy) has reduced the budget of yoga from Rs 1,069 crore in 2013-14 to a meagre Rs 318 crore this year.
Alleging that Modi and his government's claims were but a "farce", the Congress leader claimed that UPA's commitment to AYUSH - that includes yoga was far deeper and it went beyond public relations "blitzkriegs".

"We spent Rs 2,994 crore on AYUSH during the 11th plan (2007-12) and allocated Rs 10,044 crore for the 12th plan, an increase of 235 per cent," he claimed.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP have again proven their misconceived usurpation and their vicious ability of turning anything and everything - even the most benign and pious - into an aggressive, divisive and propagandist issue.
"This time around, it is our ancient Indian heritage of yoga which is being made into a propaganda and public relation exercise, which aims at projecting the Prime Minister and his party as the inventors of yoga," he alleged in a statement.

Calling the Prime Minister an "event and headline manager", Surjewala alleged, it was indeed a pity that even as burning issues affect the nation, the Prime Minister is lost in "Lalit Asan".
"The suited, booted PM believes in Raj Yog whereas the country urgently requires a Karm Yogi," he said.
Surjewala at the same time stressed that his party stands in support of the UN initiative of declaring June 21 as the International Yoga Day and reminded that former Prime Ministers Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Morarji Desai and P V Narasimha Rao had been its committed practitioners.