Madras HC questions Sadhguru's Isha Foundation over women renouncing worldly lives
Chennai: The founder of the Isha Foundation, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, has come under fire from the Madras High Court for pushing young women to renounce their material lives even though he had arranged his daughter's marriage. The court questioned this while hearing a case filed by retired professor S. Kamaraj, who stated that his two highly educated daughters had been "brainwashed" into living permanently at the Isha Yoga Centre.
Judges S.M. Subramaniam and V. Sivagnanam's bench seemed uncomfortable when the two women—ages 42 and 39—appeared in court today. The two women argued, however, that they were not being kept against their will and were staying at the Isha Foundation of their own free will. The parents testified that their lives were permanently damaged because their daughters had "abandoned" them, and this was as much evidence as they had been claiming for the entire ten years of this lawsuit.
In response, the Isha Foundation made it clear that participants voluntarily join the group. "We honor personal preferences. People travel to Isha for a variety of reasons, including marriage and monastic life, but they are not forced to do either," a Foundation spokesman stated. They claim that there is only one case against the organization that is pending at the police stations right now, and that the court has halted another.
However, the court desired further investigation. It demanded a list of every case involving the Isha Foundation. The court's intimation implied, in a sense, that the investigation had been scoped up. Sivagnanam laughed, "We want to understand why somebody who arranged for his own daughter's marriage is encouraging other daughters to shave their heads and live like hermits."
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Niqab incident: Nitish Kumar perhaps revealing his true colours, says J-K CM
Srinagar (PTI): Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday criticised his Bihar counterpart over the niqab incident and said that Nitish Kumar might be slowly revealing his true nature.
"Nitish Kumar, who was once considered a secular leader, may be slowly showing his true colours," Abdullah told reporters here on the sidelines of a function.
Abdullah said Kumar removing the face veil of a Muslim woman doctor was wrong and cannot be justified by any means.
"We have seen this kind of incident here several years ago. Have you forgotten how Mehbooba Mufti removed the burqa of a legitimate voter inside a polling station? That act was wrong, and this act (of Kumar) is also wrong.
"If the (Bihar) chief minister did not want to hand over the order to her (Muslim woman), they could have kept her aside. However, to humiliate her like this is totally wrong," the Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said.
Kumar stirred a huge controversy after he removed the face veil of a Muslim woman at a function earlier this week.
