Yoga in schools is a good idea. But opposition parties always oppose it because they to not want someone else to take the credit for giving a fillip to this ancient art.
Yoga in schools is a good idea. But opposition parties always oppose it because they to not want someone else to take the credit for giving a fillip to yoga.
In India a Parliamentary Standing Committee that includes high profile members from the ruling coalition government has unanimously recommended that yoga should be made compulsory in schools across the country. The Committee has said, “The Committee is of the opinion that yoga is one stream of education, which will make a permanent and positive impact on a student’s life. Yoga has been gaining immense popularity due to the short-term as well as long-term benefits that it provides. Yoga helps one to achieve all-round development. Considering the vast potential of this ancient knowledge of India, the committee recommends that yoga be made compulsory for all school-going children in the country.”
This really should be taken as a case of better late than never. Yoga is India’s heritage and a truly secular one at that. Its objective is to condition the mind, body and soul to be one with the Divine. It does not matter which form of the divine one believes in. The practice of Yoga owes its origin to the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali.
However the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Hinduism based opposition party, has cried foul. The reason given is that the Congress Party, the leader in the present coalition government, vociferously opposed the BJP’s attempts to introduce yoga. This is not totally correct because the BJP’s attempts of introducing yoga in Madhya Pradesh, a state under its governance, could be considered flawed. One attempt had yoga classes in schools with the chanting of Sanskrit hymns. This eroded the secular nature of the exercise and was opposed by Muslims and Christians. The other attempt was to have a yoga session in the state assembly. The choice of place can be considered questionable, except for the fact that the politicians need to practice yoga more than the schoolchildren. On both occasions the Congress termed the attempts as an imposition of Hinduism and a violation of India’s secular constitution.
It is unfortunate to see something as pure as yoga being embroiled in such political one-upmanship.
