PM Modi earlier this month took to his Twitter account to post moments of him doing his morning exercises. (Source: Twitter/@narendramodi)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lead the fourth International Yoga Day celebrations in the campus of the Dehradun-based Forest Research Institute (FRI), on Thursday. Joining the prime minister will be at least 50,000 yoga enthusiasts from institutions including Baba Ramdev’s Haridwar-based Patanjali Yogpeeth, Haridwar-based Shanti Kunj, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living, participants from the “spiritual organisation” Brahma Kumaris, and yoga practitioners from Swami Chidanand Saraswati’s Rishikesh-based Parmarth Niketan, officials said.
Amidst tight security of almost 3,000 police personnel who will be at the FRI campus, Modi is scheduled to arrive at the FRI ground at 6:30 on Thursday morning, where he will perform yoga along with other participants and government officials on a 400 sqm area. The prime minister will leave the FRI building by 7:50 am, ADG (law & order) Ashok Kumar said.
Modi had visited Uttarakhand on October 20, last year, where he had laid the foundation stone for construction works at Kedarnath, in Uttarakhand’s Rudraprayag district. Since then he has been reviewing the progress of the works that he had announced at Kedarnath.
Uttarakhand being a politically dormant area, prime minister’s sudden interest in the state with projects such as rebuilding the flood-hit Kedarnath and his decision to celebrate International Yoga Day in Dehradun has raised people’s curiosity.
Chief Minister Trivendra Rawat said that Modi’s presence in Dehradun on Yoga Day “will give the state the much-needed recognition as a yoga destination, and this will eventually enhance the tourism potential of the state.”
However, former chief minister and senior Congress leader Harish Rawat said to The Indian Express that celebrating Yoga Day at Dehradun was a “mere gimmick” by the BJP to divert people’s attention from crucial issues in the country.
“Uttarakhand is known for its Gods and temples, its sages, and yoga. The Modi government is trying to use the identity of the state to divert people’s attention from crucial issues of development where the BJP has failed. The big show at FRI (on Thursday) will attract attention, internationally, and the message will go that the BJP is propagating yoga in Uttarakhand, where yoga’s roots lie. But, it’s just a gimmick,” Harish Rawat said.