The country is all geared up to roll out yoga mats tomorrow to mark the fourth International Day of Yoga (IDY), with Prime Minister Narendra Modi scheduled to lead 55,000 enthusiasts in performing asanas in Dehradun.
Yoga sessions will be held across the world to mark the day, picked by the United Nations to celebrate the ancient Indian practice that has spread across the globe.
Indian missions abroad are also coordinating activities, officials said, to mark the UN day for which the country had lobbied hard.
Five thousand yoga events will be held in India, an AYUSH ministry official said.
Eight events are planned in New Delhi alone with the main one at Rajpath, where Modi showcased a series of asanas on the first Yoga Day in 2015.
The biggest show in the country this time will be on the lawns of the Forest Research Institute (FRI) in the lap of the Himalayas in Uttarakhand's capital Dehradun.
“Yoga is not just a set of exercises that keeps the body fit. It is a passport to health assurance, a key to fitness and wellness. Nor is yoga only what you practise in the morning,” a statement quoting Modi said.
“Doing your day-to-day activities with diligence and complete awareness is a form of yoga as well,” it said
Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Suresh Prabhu, Uma Bharti, Ram Vilas Paswan, Ravi Shankar Prasad will be in Lucknow, Nagpur, Chennai, Rudraprayag, Hajipur and Patna respectively for Yoga Day, a BJP functionary said.
Among other ministers, Ananth Kumar will be in Bengaluru, J P Nadda in Shimla, Narendra Singh Tomar in Gwalior, Piyush Goyal in Noida and Prakash Javadekar in Mumbai.
Around 50,000 yoga enthusiasts including women personnel from paramilitary forces like BSF, CRPF and CISF will participate in an event at Delhi's Red Fort organised by the Brahma Kumaris.
The AYUSH Ministry has launched mobile app ‘Yoga Locator' to help people find a yoga session. The Women and Child Development Ministry is promoting “#YogaFor9to5”, a contest to generate awareness on the benefits of yoga for women at workplace.
In Dehradun, there is a massive deployment of security personnel in and around the Forest Research Institute, building up over the last few days.
Nashik-based yoga promoter Vishwas Mandalik and the Yoga Institute in Mumbai have been selected for this year's prime minister's award for outstanding contribution in the field.
The selection was done from among 186 nominations received under different categories.
In Lucknow, All India Muslim Personal Law Board said yoga should not be used as a political tool or linked to a particular community.
"Islam lays special emphasis on physical fitness and considers things related to fitness as good. Yoga as an exercise is good, but it should not be made compulsory which may not be acceptable to people of other religions,” spokesman told PTI.
"The most important thing is that yoga should not be used as a political tool. But sadly this practice is going on," Sajjad Nomani said.
Last year, the main Yoga Day function was in Lucknow.
In 2015, the yoga event on New Delhi's Rajpath made it to the Guinness World Records with 35,985 participants performing asanas at one venue and 84 nationalities being part of it.
The United Nations General Assembly in December 2014 had declared that June 21 would be observed as International Day of Yoga every year.
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