As the first glint of sun’s rays touched the City Beautiful on the longest day of the year on June 21, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday led more than 30,000 yoga enthusiasts for the second International Yoga Day celebrations as he pitched for treating diseases like diabetes through the ancient spiritual discipline and also announced two yoga awards — one international and another national — to be given away from the next year.
The Prime Minister, attired in a white T-shirt, white trousers and a scarf for the celebrations at majestic Capitol Complex, also stressed that yoga is “not a religious practice” and called it “people’s mass movement.”
Noting that yoga has become a major economic activity worldwide, Modi said that it gives health benefits on “zero budget”. Among all the methods of preventive care, yoga is cheap and available to all, he said.
An avid yoga practitioner, the Prime Minister performed most of the ‘asanas’, along with thousands of participants, clad in blue-and-white-coloured T-shirts and black trousers, bending and stretching in sync with the English and Hindi instructions to a background score of Indian classical music being played over loudspeakers at the venue.
Full of zest and zeal, the yoga enthusiasts, specially shortlisted to perform yoga at Capitol Complex, started lining up around the spruced up complex around 3 am on Tuesday. These included Defence forces personnel, ITBP personnel, Punjab Armed Police personnel, Punjab University students, schoolchildren and the elderly.
Many top-notch politicians and top bureaucrats from the region also sat on mats to perform asanas at the one-hour long event that was closely followed across the world.
Kicking off the event, the Prime Minister urged people to embrace yoga for better physical and mental health saying “Iss Jeevan mein Yoga ko Jeevan ka Hissa baniye.”
“Just as the mobile phone is now part of your life, make yoga too a part of your life,” Modi, while addressing the gathering, told the yoga enthusiasts.
Insisting that the ancient practice does not belong to one person, community or the country but to the whole world, he said that yoga is for both believers and non-believers and there is no need to create any controversy over it.
“Some people do not understand yoga… It helps in getting mukti (salvation) from health issues,” said he in an attempt to de-link the belief among some that yoga was a part of Hinduism.
Under attack from Opposition that such yoga programmes amount to interference in religious freedom, the Prime Minister said that yoga is not a religious activity. “It is not what you will get from yoga but what is important is what you will give to yoga and what all (ailments) will it rid you of,” he added.
During his address which lasted for over 20 minutes, Modi urged those pursuing yoga to focus on the subject of diabetes before the third event of the UN-recognised day is celebrated next year.
“Yoga can control diabetes if not eliminate it. This should be the main focus for the whole year,” said he while expressing concern over rising number of diabetic patients.
The Prime Minister, who arrived here on Monday night, was welcomed with thundering claps and cheers from the large crowd as he started his address from the dais.
Soon after addressing the gathering, Modi climbed down from the podium to join the participants and straight away went to meet ‘Divyangs’, a nomenclature given to the differently-abled by him. About 150 ‘Divyangs’ were assisted in performing yoga asanas at the Capitol Complex.
Modi also took a short break to inspect the poses of his fellow yoga enthusiasts, before settling down on a mat and joining them.
More than 30,000 people of all ages, 10,000 each from Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana performed yoga asanas on pink and blue coloured mats during the event.
When the yoga session ended, Modi walked past scores of volunteers who wanted to shake hands with him and take selfies. His security had a hard time keeping the excited crowd away from him as he also interacted with the children after the session.
Punjab and Haryana Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki, who is also Chandigarh’s Administrator, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar lal Khattar, city MP Kirron Kher were among those who share dais with the Prime Minister at the mega event.
Unprecedented security arrangements were in place around the venue in Chandigarh’s high-security zone of Sector 1 for more than 24 hours. The entire complex was sealed off by paramilitary commandos.
The Capitol complex was divided into eight blocks where 500 master trainers along with their team members performed asanas. Several lED screens were also put up at the venue.