International Yoga Day is supported by 177 countries and was ratified by the United Nations last year. Photo / Thinkstock
Last year, when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered his maiden speech before the United Nations, he spoke of one of his country's best known cultural exports in lofty terms, saying, "Yoga is an invaluable gift of our ancient tradition ... it is not about exercise but to discover oneness
within yourself, the world and nature."
He used the occasion to propose an International Yoga Day, eventually supported by 177 countries and ratified by the United Nations last year. It's all part of Modi's hope to rebrand India's yoga to the world.
On June 21, the first International Yoga Day, Modi will share his "oneness" experience with 40,000 government employees, students and citizens on the ceremonial Rajpath boulevard in the Indian capital New Delhi, as thousands more follow along with the yoga routines - beamed from New Delhi on big screens - in more than 100 countries.
But the grand project has caused a stink at home for the yoga-loving Prime Minister. First, Muslim groups objected to the inclusion of "Surya Namaskar", otherwise known as Sun Salutation, so the drill was dropped from the programme, according to the Times of India. Then, a firebrand member of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, Yogi Adityanath, suggested that all those objecting to sun salutes should be drowned at sea.
"Sun is the source of life-giving energy," the member of Parliament from Uttar Pradesh state said at a religious event this week. "Whoever thinks sun is communal, I would like to humbly request them to drown themselves in the sea or they should stay in a dark cell."
