BHUBANESWAR: Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) on Sunday criticised the Narendra Modi Government at the Centre for trying to usurp the ancient Indian heritage of yoga and turning it into a propaganda and public relations exercise.
“Yoga is a way of life,” chairman of the OPCC media department Kailash Acharya said and added that mass drill for a day is meaningless. In a veiled attack on the BJP government at the Centre, Acharya said that taking recourse to lies and falsehood all the time and advocating yoga are contradictory things.
Yoga is nothing new for India and there is no need for its propaganda, Acharya said and alleged that such display has made a mockery of the science of yoga propounded by sage Patanjali thousands of years ago.
The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD), however, welcomed the International Yoga Day by saying it will create national awareness on the country’s ancient heritage. However, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik did not participate in the event though several other ministers attended the yoga session organised at the Kalinga Stadium here on Sunday.
“We extended all support and senior officials of the state Government also participated,” Satpathy said and added that all school children also observed the Day. The BJD, however, did not participate in the International Yoga Day as a political party, he said.
