On Tuesday, the second International Yoga Day, India will lead the world in escalating the Yoga momentum that was created last year following the declaration by the United Nations General Assembly in December 2014 to celebrate June 21 as the Yoga Day.
While UN headquarters projected the image of a yoga posture on its building, various yoga activities and programmes have been lined up across the 191 nations to mark the day.
“Yoga set to light up UN. Sneak peek of Yoga posture projections on iconic UN Headquarters building in New York on IDY 2016,” India’s Ambassador to the UN Syed Akbaruddin tweeted.
In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will join more than 32,000 yoga lovers at Chandigarh’s Capitol Complex where 4,000 paramilitary and 3,000 Chandigarh Police personnel will be deployed for the event.
“All arrangements are in place for Tuesday’s International Yoga Day event,” said Chandigarh Home Secretary Anurag Aggarwal. Entry to the venue will start at 4 am through designated entry points and close by 5.30 am. While the main event will begin at 6.30 am, the Common Yoga Protocol will start at 7 am and last for 45 minutes.
Suryanamaskar, which had generated controversy last time by a section of a community, has not been included this year too. Chanting of Om has also not been made mandatory.
Among those who will attend the event at Chandigarh include Punjab and Haryana Governor Kapatan Singh Solanki, who is also Chandigarh’s Administrator, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his Haryana counterpart Manohar lal Khattar.
As many as 57 Union Ministers will fan out across the country with Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley leading the programmes in lucknow and Mumbai, respectively. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu will be in Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh, while Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar is expected to participate in Kanpur. Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu will participate in a programme in the national Capital while Power Minister Piyush Goyal is slated to perform yoga with others in Raipur. Health Minister JP Nadda has been assigned Ahmedabad for the purpose.
All the States in the country are all set to participate in the event in a large scale. Connaught Place and six other venues in Delhi are all set to host thousands of people on the occasion of International Yoga Day.
Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS) will, in collaboration with over a dozen noted social organisations will hold 1,00,260 yoga programmes at different centres across the country, out of which 10 regional level mega events will be hosted by major cities of Varanasi, Imphal, Jammu,Vadodara, lucknow, Bengaluru, Vijayawada, Bhubaneshwar, Shimla and Hoshiarpur.
India’s Permanent Mission to the UN in association with the UN Department of Public Information will commemorate the day on June 21 at the world body’s headquarters.
The event will be attended by General Assembly President Morgens lykketoft, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information Cristina Gallach and Isha Foundation founder and spiritual leader Jaggi Sadhguru, who will lead a simple yoga practice.
Ambassadors and diplomats from various countries will also share their own experiences of how Yoga has influenced their life styles.
“Among 193 member countries of United Nations, 191 will be celebrating Yoga Day this year. Only libya and Yemen are not celebrating it as you know the condition of these two countries,” Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj on Sunday said.
She also said that particiaption on Yoga Day will be doubled this year and is being celebrated more in foreign countries compared to India.