Yoga frenzy grips Karnataka
Bengaluru, June 21 : Thousands of people, young and old, on Thursday celebrated the fourth International Yoga Day in Karnataka by participating in yoga sessions held in cities and towns across the state.
Prominent among those who performed yoga aasanas included 85-year-old former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, his son and Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader B.S. Yeddyurappa and Union Minister for Programme Implementation D.V. Sadananda Gowda.
While Deve Gowda performed yoga at his residence in the city, Yeddyurappa took part in the Yoga Day activities held at his party office in Bengaluru.
In Bengaluru, hundreds flocked to Kanteerava Stadium in the city centre where the main event was held from 7 a.m. in its circular ground. Kumaraswamy was present at the venue.
"Yoga Day provides a glimpse into India's rich and ancient heritage... Yoga is dear to me. My family, including my father (Deve Gowda) and wife (Anita), too are ardent followers of yoga and practice it daily," the Chief Minister said in a statement.
Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar also joined in the Yoga Day celebrations along with students at a private university here.
Several public venues across Mysuru, Dharwad, Hubballi and Mangaluru among other cities and towns were also filled with enthusiastic people performing "surya namaskaras" (sun salutation, a yogic practice) and other yogic poses.
Hundreds gathered in front of the iconic royal Mysore palace in Mysuru to perform yoga, making for a delightful spectacle as they performed the exercises in unison.
Mysuru had entered the Guinness World Records for holding the largest yoga lesson in the world in 2017, when 55,506 participants performed yoga at one venue.
The Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, one among the yoga forms, is said to have been popularised in the country by a yoga teacher from the state K. Pattabhi Jois, who had set up a yoga research institute in Mysuru (then Mysore) in 1948.
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New Delhi (PTI): Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra has also approached the Supreme Court challenging the validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025.
Meanwhile, a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justices Sanjay Kumar and KV Viswanathan has listed for hearing on April 16 ten other petitions, including the one filed by AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi, challenging the validity of the law.
Samajwadi Party MP from Sambhal, Zia-ur-Rahman Barq, had recently also filed a plea on the issue in the apex court.
Moitra, who filed her plea on April 9, has said the controversial amendment not only suffered from serious procedural lapses but also violated several fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution.
“It is submitted that the violation of parliamentary practices during the law-making process has contributed to the unconstitutionality of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025,” the plea said.
“Procedurally, the Chairperson of the Joint Parliamentary Committee flouted parliamentary rules and practices both at the stage of consideration and adoption of the draft report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Waqf Amendment Bill and at the stage of presentation of the said report before Parliament,” it said.
The plea said that dissenting opinions from the opposition MPs were reportedly redacted without justification from the final report presented in Parliament on February 13, 2025.
Such actions undermined the deliberative process of Parliament and violated established norms as outlined in authoritative parliamentary procedure manuals, it said.
The plea said the new law allegedly infringed upon Articles 14 (equality before the law), 15(1) (non-discrimination), 19(1)(a) and (c) (freedom of speech and association), 21 (right to life and personal liberty), 25 and 26 (freedom of religion), 29 and 30 (minority rights), and Article 300A (right to property) of the Constitution.
Moitra sought striking down of the Act in its entirety, citing its procedural irregularities and substantive violations of the Constitution.
AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi, AAP leader Amanatullah Khan, Association for the Protection of Civil Rights, Arshad Madani, Samastha Kerala Jamiathul Ulema, Anjum Kadari, Taiyyab Khan Salmani, Mohammad Shafi, Mohammed Fazlurrahim and RJD leader Manoj Kumar Jha have also moved the top court on the issue.
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and Congress MPs Imran Pratapgarhi and Mohammad Jawed are other key petitioners in the case.
