International Yoga Day: BJP central ministers, MPs, MLAs to descend in Kolkata

Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will be present at the SAI complex along with party MLA from Bengal Shamik Bhattacharya and leaders Shiv Prakash and Amal Chatterjee.

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan will be present at Kharagpur and MoS Babul Supriyo will attend two sessions, in Burnpur and Asansol. BJP MP S S Ahluwalia will be present in Darjeeling for the programme.

Tushar Sil, president of the Yoga-Naturopathy Medical Council, said on Saturday that the theme for the main yoga day celebration in Bengal is “Globalisation of Yoga.”

Sil said that seven vice-presidents of the council including yoga performers like Prem Sundar Das will participate in the programme along with thousands of students. Food and refreshments will be served to the participants.

He also pointed out that West Bengal has forever been the leading state where yoga has excelled. Swami Vivekananda was the first one to take yoga to the United States as he propagated the cause of mental alertness and physical agility through yoga. After that, there had been series of yoga gurus in West Bengal like Swami Yogananda, Bishnu Charan Ghosh, Sivananda Saraswati, Yogeshwarananda, Monotosh Roy and others, he said.

Sil said that Bengal could well become the first state in the country to have a yoga hospital and registered medical course conferring degrees to the students.