Centre shortlists 5 cities, including Mysuru, for International Yoga Day event
New Delhi: The Centre has shortlisted five cities -- Delhi, Shimla, Mysuru, Ahmedabad and Ranchi -- for holding the national programme of the International Yoga Day this year.
It will be the government's first mega public event after Narendra Modi became prime minister for a second term.
Names of the four cities have been sent to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) which will finalise the venue of the main function of the International Yoga Day to be held on June 21, official sources said.
"We have already started the preparations and the event will be organised in a large scale," a senior AYUSH ministry official said.
If national capital is selected as the venue, it would be hosting the event for the second time. Delhi had hosted the main event of the Yoga Day in 2015.
In the lead-up to the event, a two-day yoga mahotsav is being organised in Delhi by the Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga starting Saturday. It will be attended by about 10,000 people, including yoga teachers, professionals, enthusiasts among others.
"The aim is to build an atmosphere of yoga in the lead-up to the main event and sensitise the people about the June 21 function," the official said.
The United Nations declared June 21 as the International Day of Yoga in 2014 after Modi called for the day to be adopted as a global celebration of yoga, an ancient practice that began in India more than 5,000 years ago.
Last year, the main event of the International Day of Yoga was held at the ground of Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi participated.
The first International Yoga Day celebration was organised at Rajpath in New Delhi on June 21, 2015, in which representatives of 191 countries took part. In 2016, the main function was held in Chandigarh and in 2017 it was held in Lucknow.
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'Betrayal of people's mandate': Tejashwi on Nitish's Rajya Sabha entry
Patna (PTI): RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday said Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's decision to enter the Rajya Sabha was a "betrayal" of the people's mandate.
Yadav, the leader of the opposition in the state assembly, alleged the BJP has always been opposed to Dalits and OBCs, and with Kumar leaving the CM's post, it will seek to implement its agenda in the socialist stronghold.
"The BJP has done a Maharashtra in Bihar," he said.
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"We have been saying from the very beginning that the BJP will not let Nitish Kumar remain the chief minister after the elections. This is exactly what has happened. This development is against the mandate of the people and amounts to a betrayal of it," he said.
Alleging that the BJP had "hijacked" Kumar, Yadav said that was the reason the veteran leader was now moving to the Rajya Sabha.
"BJP is against OBCs and Dalits. They never want a leader from these communities to occupy the top post. They want a chief minister who will function like a rubber stamp for the top BJP leadership," he alleged.
"I had said -- 'Nitish ji ko ghoda toh chadhaya hai dulha banake, lekin phera kisi aur ke saath dila raha hai' (They made Nitish Kumar mount the horse like a groom, but are getting someone else to take the wedding vows)," he added.
Kumar, the state's longest-serving chief minister, filed nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha polls, paving the way for the first BJP-led government in the state.
