Nitish, Mamata stay away from Yoga day event; yoga should not be seen as any religious practice: Vijayan

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, a key BJP ally, today stayed away from the International Yoga Day event in Patna, which was a low-key affair in West Bengal where his counterpart Mamata Banerjee also gave it a miss, in moves marked by possible political overtones.

As millions of yoga enthusiasts stretched and twisted their bodies, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said yoga should not be seen as part of any religious practice.

Speaking at the state-level celebrations in Thiruvananthapuram, Vijayan, a CPI-M veteran, however lauded the greatness and benefits of yoga.

In Bihar, Nitish Kumar did not participate in the main Yoga Day event in Patna which set tongues wagging. The event was inaugurated by Governor Satya Pal Malik and attended by top BJP leaders including union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi.

However, both the ruling allies--JD(U) and BJP-- sought to downplay Kumar's absence.

The JD(U) said Kumar has been practising yoga daily even before it was declared as an International Day by the United Nations in 2015 and "it would be wrong to attach any political meaning to personal decisions."
Sushil Modi on his part asked, "why do you want to make an issue out of Nitish Kumar's absence?"
"There are many BJP leaders who could not make it to the function. There may be many leaders, not just in JD(U) but even in opposition parties like the RJD, who practice yoga regularly. Would you try to derive a political meaning out of that?