The animated videos released in the run-up to the 5th International Day of Yoga (IDY) on June 21, are the latest in a continuing effort by the PM to establish the supremacy of yoga in the world and his supremacy over the world of yoga. And yet, come to think of it, the world has been familiar with yoga for long and the reason is not Narendra Modi. Union minister Prakash Javadekar said, “Yoga has become a mass movement.”Within India, yoga had come to be associated in the last two decades with those who are referred to as godmen (though God knows yoga is strictly for men). It was Modi who proposed the idea of a yoga day at the UN General Assembly in September 2014. A yoga anthem was picked; as of 2015 yoga is a recognised sports discipline; a yoga fest was instituted; yoga conferences; yoga committee in universities; the Union ministry of home affairs introduced short term yoga programmes for tourist visas...

Source: The Telegraph June 22, 2019 20:03 UTC