Bhubaneswar: With people of all ages cutting across the social strata and regions rolling out their yoga mats to take part in the International Yoga Day celebrations today, BJP criticised the Odisha government's lack of participation and initiatives to mark the day.
Sources said just like last year, the state government had decided to observe the International Day of Yoga today at Jayadev Bhawan in Bhubaneswar and event cards were also printed, but the government decided to cancel the event at the very last moment raising eyebrows.
Although the reason behind cancellation is yet to be known, the Directorate of AYUSH has not commented on the matter.
However, BJP's Odisha unit General Secretary, Prithviraj Harichandan said “It is very unfortunate that the government decided not to celebrate the International Day of Yoga due to political reasons, shallow mentality and immaturity. It has exposed CM Naveen’s ‘Rastra-Virodhi’ attitude.”
The Congress said that sometimes when the going is not good, the BJD goes out of sync with the Centre but at other times it favours them.
“The government should have at least organised some official program to mark the Yoga Day. What can we do because at times they (BJD) remain equidistant and sometimes they seem to tilt towards them (BJP),” Odisha Congress chief Niranjan Patnaik said.
On the other hand, the BJD termed the saffron party’s allegations baseless. “The State Government has neither barred anyone from celebrating International Day of Yoga nor there is any directive showing that the government has to compulsorily celebrate the occasion,” BJD leader Arun Sahoo said.