Sushma snubs Yogi on yoga

• Adityanath Said People Who Oppose Surya Namaskar Must Jump Into Sea
Rajasthan for compulsory `Surya Namaskar’
While the Centre has dropped `Surya Namaskar’ from the countrywide drill planned for International Yoga Day, Rajasthan has decided to continue with its policy of making the sun salutation compulsory in all schools daily .State minister Vasudev Devanani said, “Surya Namaskar should not be linked to religion.“ Palak.Nandi

`Practising yoga a big sin for Muslims’

Hitting back at Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi’s statement on yoga and Surya Namaskar, AIMPLB said practising yoga in their right form amounted to committing “big sin“ for Muslims.“Yoga if practised in its right form, which will essentially be done in schools, will be like placing other things on par with Allah and this will be a big sin…the board has objections over this issue,“ Spokesman of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board Abdul Rahim Qureshi said.“I want to ask Naqvi sahab whether those practising Islam are allowed to bow before anyone other than Allah,“ Qureshi said.Naqvi had attacked the AIMPLB for its stand on Yoga saying the Muslim community was being misled by religious leaders.“When yoga will be incorporated in schools, government will implement it in its basic form ignoring all objections of families of Muslim students…why is the government not coming out with its stand on this issue,“ Qureshi asked.
• Yoga is not haram: Muslim outfit PFI
Even as various Muslim bodies have protested the Centre’s move to make yoga compulsory in educational institutions, a fundamentalist outfit, Popular Front of India (PFI), doesn’t have qualms endorsing yoga despite its `Hindu’ trappings. “We frequently conduct yoga camps for cadres,“ said PFI’s general secretary K H Nazar.

External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj cast aside BJP MP Yogi Adityanath’s provocative remark that those who oppose “Surya Namaskar should drown in the sea“ as “unfortunate“ and made it clear that participation in the events to mark the International Yoga Day on June 21 was not compulsory.
“I differ with Yogi Adityanath’s comments. His comments were unfortunate,“ Swaraj said while briefing media about the elaborate arrangements made by the government to mark the occasion.The minister, trying to dispel controversies surrounding the events, said, “This is a voluntary programme and nobody should be forced into it.“
Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said at two different programmes in Lucknow that yoga is not binding on anybody and those having objections can stay away from the event.She attributed apprehensions in certain sections of the minority community over the Yoga drill to “lack of information“. “They are probably saying this because they don’t have the information. 47 members states of Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) have not only supported the India-led resolution at the UN but are also cosponsoring the events,“ she said. Answering a question on yoga guru Ramdev’s comment that offering Namaz is similar to the yoga, Swaraj said, “I think Baba Ramdev intended to say that yoga is not a religious act.“ Swaraj said `Surya Namaskar’ had been kept out of the common protocol because many people with certain physical ailments may not be able to do it.