In a country like India which has stark contrasts in standards  of people’s lives, fitness is deemed rather ostentatious. Yoga and spirituality are up for sale much like fitness equipment in the market. Fake babas and swamijis are much celebrated too. They are not only setting up massive business establishments, but are also making money out of the talks they deliver on psychological and physical health. With more than 50% of people suffering from malnourishment, fitness is a misnomer. Our Prime Minister Modi is busy playing the fitness game while people at the lower strata are suffering from lack of hygienic food, safe drinking water and access to health and education. Initially he posed for pictures under Swacch Bharat campaign. But after spending a few thousand crores to clean it up, he has gone totally quiet about it. All the money, a few thousand crores of rupees has gone down in the drain. The government has remained unaccounted on people’s money. Lives of paurakarmikas, cleaners and janitors has remained the same. Devotees and industrialists have been polluting the much adored river Ganga. The government feigns helplessness.

Now at such momentous times, Modi is busy playing the fitness game. He has been challenging others also to participate in this, by tagging them on his social media. Having turned foreign countries as his mainstay except for the times when any state would be preparing for elections, he is a classic example of a person who has lost his track. This fitness game seems like a small time preparation to 2019 elections. When he tagged Karnataka CM H D Kumaraswamy, the latter has said he is more concerned about the fitness of the state equally or over his own physical fitness. He even sought the cooperation of Modiji in this regard, conveying to him that he need not be taught a lesson or two in fitness which is not even his priority. He has in fact indirectly advised the PM to pay attention to the nation’s fitness.

This country’s fitness and Narendra Modi’s personal fantasy of fitness are not interconnected at all. A global report has challenged about the overall fitness of the youth of this nation. Instead of accepting that challenge, Modi has taken refuge in social media.

The recently published Global Poverty Index has shown India has slipped two more positions below. This means increasingly the country is going hungry. India has gone further down from 97th position to 100th one now. This would also mean India is in much worse condition compared to Nepal, Bangla etc. India was in 57thposition among 119 countries that had participated to understand their global hunger index in 2013. By 2016 India had reached 92 and now the country is at 100th position. According to Wealth Hunger Life organization Director “self sufficiency of food is also getting affected. The economic policies made by the current govt are responsible for this. This has had a direct impact on food nutrition and security” she had said. And her anticipation has a lot of truth in it. Anaemia is the biggest menace India is facing which is contributing to maternal mortality and poor health of new borns.

Hunger leaves an indelible mark on the lives of young men. Children who grow being subject to malnutrition can never accept such fitness challenge. Hunger, ill-health and illiteracy are interconnected. Hunger has a direct link to resurfacing of TB in this nation. Things have reached really difficult phase after demonentisation. People are losing jobs in small cities and semi-urban areas and new jobs are hard to come by in agrarian and small industries sector. Migrant labourers are returning to their villages owing to no jobs in the city. Modi’s economic understanding has excluded the poor from its focal area, hence this field has very limited allowance set aside for it. With this, how can the country take fitness challenge? Hence, Modi should stop spending resources on social media presence and listen to the WHO report and guidelines to eradicate the poverty totally.   

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New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Culture allegedly spent Rs 76.13 lakh on print advertisements marking the 100-year celebrations of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), according to a Right to Information (RTI) reply.

The information was sought by RTI activist Ajay Basudev Bose, who filed an application seeking details on expenditure incurred by the ministry for advertisements commemorating the RSS centenary.

Bose shared a picture of the reply from the ministry on his official ‘X’ handle.

“It is informed that an amount of Rs 76,13,129 has been spent on advertisement given in various print media by the Ministry of Culture on the occasion of the completion of 100 years of RSS,” the government’s reply stated.

Bose questioned the expenditure in the post X, “when Everyone knows RSS is Not Registered & Does not Pay any Tax is it justified to spend Tax Payers Money on such Private event??”

Reacting to the development, Karnataka’s IT-BT and Panchayat Raj Minister Priyank Kharge also criticised the spending.

In a post on X, he asked why public money was being used for what he described as a “private ideological project.”

"Modi Sarkar spent Rs 76,13,129 of public money on newspaper advertisements to celebrate 100 years of the RSS. Why is Government spending taxpayers money on an unregistered, non-tax-paying organisation to celebrate their centenary?," he added. 

According to reports, the RSS describes itself as a volunteer-based organisation and has stated that it functions as a body of individuals rather than a registered entity.

Founded by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar in 1925, the organisation is marking its centenary year beginning from Vijaydashami in 2025, with the milestone observed on October 2.