New Delhi, June 21: A widely popular Yoga Day programme today sent the Congress scrambling to advertise its yogic credentials lest its unspoken boycott invite an "anti-yoga" tag, while a gleeful BJP counted its perceived political gains.
Congress leaders defended skipping the day's celebrations countrywide, dubbing them a political exercise to promote the Prime Minister, and yet lined up to shower the public with International Yoga Day greetings.
The party posted photos of Jawaharlal Nehru doing a shirshasana and its heavyweights tripped over themselves to declare they had performed asanas this morning "as usual" - at their homes.
BJP leaders touted today's celebrations as India's "show of strength" worldwide, crowed over the Prime Minister's surprise yogic skills, and tittered in glee as much at rival Arvind Kejriwal's participation in the Rajpath spectacle as at the Congress's discomfiture.
Asked if the Congress felt isolated with most Indians appearing to laud the government's initiative, spokesperson Tom Vadakkan thundered: "Yoga was not invented by Modi or the RSS. All our Prime Ministers passionately performed yoga - even Sonia Gandhi regularly does yoga."
He added: "We can't be isolated from Indian culture and tradition because of our disconnect with the RSS agenda. We celebrate yoga without dancing to the tune of Narendra Modi."
Congress politicians challenged social media critics who slammed their party as a spoilsport. They cited how Congress-led governments had released stamps depicting yoga postures in 1991 and, in the past decade, patented and digitised yoga moves and ancient texts.
What the party had distanced itself from, they explained, was not yoga but Modi's "multi-billion tamasha (travesty)" at Rajpath. "I wish International Yoga Day to all. But this tamasha of community yoga is utter waste of public money and is only image-building for Modi," Digvijaya Singh tweeted.
Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda accused Modi of mixing up his priorities by organising a yoga extravaganza while ignoring issues such as agrarian distress and health care.
'Stunned'
The BJP claimed it was "stunned" when Modi began bending in the company of thousands at Rajpath, confessing it had expected the Prime Minister to preside over but not participate in the event.
"Modi in a yogic performance remained focused on International Yoga Day while others (the Opposition) were trying to do what they are best at, deliver sling shots and barbs and spread vitriol," spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi said.
Modi's act was not the sole inspiring image for the BJP, singed by its first scandal involving heavyweights after a "scam-free first year" in power. Another was that of Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje, stung by the Lalit Modi controversy and barely recovered from an attack of spondylosis, performing asanas at Jaipur's Sawai Mansingh stadium.
Her Delhi counterpart, Kejriwal, engaged in an unending slugfest with the Centre, provided another pleasant surprise. "He came and participated in somebody's event and we appreciate it," Lekhi said.
Shortly after the event, BJP president Amit Shah released a statement of appreciation that listed the roles played by each Union minister and party official.
He started off by pointedly mentioning that veteran L.K. Advani - who had taken barely concealed pot shots at Modi recently - had "braved" bad weather in Palampur, Himachal Pradesh, to do his asanas. Sources said the objective was to project the government and the party as a "united house" in the face of Opposition attacks.
"Those who sought to oppose it (Yoga Day) politically have got their reply from the people's participation, not only in India but the world over," minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
