New Delhi: From attempting a “Suryanamaskar” outside their office at the United Nations to doing a head stand in the lap of Mount Everest, the Indian diplomatic corps across the world has got active to promote the International Day of Yoga (IDY) that marks its fifth anniversary on June 21.
Yoga Day is an important annual event of the Indian government that is widely promoting yoga as a soft tool of diplomacy. The world over, Indian diplomatic corps organise mega events in their respective place of postings to make yoga day a great success.
On Sunday, the Indian embassy organised a yoga event at Nepal’s Namche Bazaar — gateway of Mount Everest. This is for the first time, yoga was celebrated at the Base Camp of Mount Everest and India’s Bharat Sharma and other mountaineers created history by performing yoga at 17,600 feet with the mighty Mount Everest in the backdrop. Other foreign mountaineers, tourists and researchers also joined the event, along with local people and Indian ambassador to Nepal Manjeev Singh Puri and embassy officials.
“The main objective of Embassies add to Yoga Day push the programme was to highlight the importance of yoga in daily life and to bring peace and harmony across continents, nations and people,” said an Indian embassy official.
Similar events took place in Myanmar, Sri Lanka, The Netherlands, Kenya, Laos and at the UN. The Indian embassy in China posted a photograph of a yoga session saying. “China takes to #Yoga in a big way! Glimpses of the curtain raiser at Tianhe Tan Park in Guiyang.”
In The Netherlands, Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jai Ram Thakur joined the IDY events organised by the Indian embassy at Dam Square. In Colombo, Sri Lankan health minister Rajitha Senaratne and other dignitaries participated along with hundreds of enthusiasts to mark the IDY.
The Indian government through social media is promoting the IDY through animated videos series that feature Prime Minister Narendra Modi explaining yoga asanas. On Sunday, Mr Modi tweeted one of his animated videos explaining “Bhujangasana” and its benefits in backpain.
The concept of the Yoga Day was proposed by Mr Modi during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on September 27, 2014.
