Revealed: Why Vice President of India Hamid Ansari was not invited to attend Yoga Day

New Delhi, June 22: A day after International Yoga Day, controversy over Vice President of India, Hamid Ansari's absence is yet to die down. His absence during the celebration of first international yoga day-led by India made headlines on Monday, June 22.

Now, finally, union minister Sripad Naik, who belongs to the concerned ministry which organised the yoga session at the Rajpath, New Delhi on Sunday, revealed why Ansari was not sent the invitation to attend the yoga session.

Naik, while clarifying the doubts of the controversy, said that the Vice President was not invited as the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, was the chief guest of the event.

The union minister was quoted as saying, "When the Prime Minister is chief guest, it is not appropriate to invite the Vice President."

However, according to sources close to Ansari claimed that the Vice President could have attended the event if he had been invited.

Media report quoted one official as saying, "There are no protocol issues. Ansari practises yoga regularly. He can be invited by the ministry concerned, this time he wasn't."

The controversy was irked by one tweet by senior BJP and RSS leader Ram Madhav. In his tweet, which later was deleted, Madhav raised questions about Ansari's absence.

Madhav also accused Rajya Sabha TV of blacking out the live telecast of the Yoga Day event "completely" despite it being run on taxpayers' money. The Rajya Sabha TV, the state-run broadcaster, is headed by Ansari as the Chairman.

However, CEO of Rajya Sabha TV, Gurdeep Singh Sappal, overruled such allegations terming the Madhav's statement as "baseless rumours."

Reacting against the allegations, Sappal tweeted, "RSTV not just did live telecast of Rajpath event. But also had 3 documentaries, 1 special report today on Yoga."

OneIndia News