Shavasana, protest yoga pose, steals the thunder from Modi govt’s Yoga Day

On the occasion of the International Yoga Day, Congress workers and farmers performed corpse pose to lodge their protest against the Centre.

New Delhi, June 21: On Wednesday, the nation saw the fitness level of its politicians. Here we are not talking about political acumen, but physical agility of politicians as they tried various yoga asanas (poses) to mark the International Yoga Day.

Leading the team of politicians was none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi as leaders from various parties, in spite of most of them being really obese, tried to do some difficult yoga poses.

When PM Modi came to attend the yoga programme in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, it started pouring heavily. But PM Modi, who is a self-confessed yoga junkie, went ahead and practiced yoga with around 51,000 participants in the city.

The efforts of the politicians were appreciated by all to promote the cause of yoga. However, many feel, especially looking at pot-bellied netas, the Yoga Day has turned into a photo op for many.

While Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar refused to participate in the Yoga Day calling it a PR exercise, Mayawati said that the massive celebration was a wastage of public fund.

Since the time PM Modi took over the reins of the country in 2014, the Yoga Day has been celebrated in a grand manner across the country.

On the sidelines of the Yoga Day, in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, several Congress workers performed the shavasana, also known as the corpse pose, to protest against the killing of farmers by the police in Mandsaur recently.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan too participated in a yoga programme, but not in the same venue as attended by Congress workers and he definitely did not perform the corpse pose.

Farmers in Madhya Pradesh have been protesting since June 1 to demand farm loan waiver and better prices for their crops. The farmers in neighbouring Maharashtra decided to end their fast recently after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis agreed to give a total farm loan waiver.

Earlier, farmer unions announced that thousands of farmers across the country will be performing the corpse pose on the Yoga Day.

The reason for the protest was to bring to notice that farmers across the country are in their "death bed" because of rising debts, poor earning on their produce and crop loss, to name a few.

The farmer leaders say that it was a non-violent protest to raise their demands of loan waiver and better prices for their produce, to name a few.

"Our non-violent movement will continue. But, yes we want to tell people across the length and breadth of this country the pitiable condition of farmers. To this end, we plan to perform shavasana on the International Day of Yoga," Shiv Kumar, chief of Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan was quoted as saying by Business Standard.

He also said that the unions are planning to come up with posters of former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri with his rallying cry of 'jai jawan, jai kisan' (hail the soldier, hail the farmer) and posters of Atal Bihari Vajpayee with his cry of 'jai vigyan' (hail science).

In contrast, PM Modi's poster will be accompanied by the slogan: 'mar gaya kisan Modiji' (farmers are dying Modiji).

OneIndia News