FISSURES IN NDA? NITISH SKIPS MODI’S YOGA DAY CELEBRATIONS
NEW DELHI: Two days after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) severed its ties with People's Democratic Party (PDP) in Jammu & Kashmir, the fissures have started appearing in Bihar's NDA alliance as JD(U) president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar skipped the International Yoga Day celebrations for the fourth consecutive year.
Given that Kumar skipped the gala celebration to observe the International Yoga Day despite being a key partner of the NDA, the political observers have opined that ‘muscleflexing exercise' by the JD(U) president is just to ‘please' his pet vote-banks.
Prior to this, the Bihar government had not celebrated this day when the JD(U) was part of the Mahagathbandhan comprising of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress.
However, according to experts, it was expected that after the party joined the Bjpled NDA, the state government would celebrate this day along with the BJP, which didn't happen even this year too.
The event was organised at the Patliputra Sports Com- plex, which was inaugurated by Governor Satyapal Malik and Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Patali- putra MP Ram Kripal Yadav. Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi and three other ministers from the BJP quota were also present on the occasion.
However, both the JD(U) and the BJP have downplayed the issue.
Defending the move, JD(U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said, “Kumar had been practising yoga daily, even before June 21 was declared as the International Day of Yoga by the United Nations. It would be wrong to attach any political meaning to personal decisions.”
When questioned about Kumar's absence at the event, both the JD(U) leaders said that the presence or absence of a public figure at an event must not be politicised.
The Chief Minister, who himself is a regular yoga practitioner and is said to have learnt the ancient discipline from the masters at the renowned Bihar School of Yoga at Munger, has been critical of the mass-scale callisthenics organised on this date ever since the UN declared June 21 as the International Day of Yoga in 2015.
Speculation was, however, rife that Kumar might take part in the celebrations this year, following his return in August last year to the Bjp-led NDA, which he had left in 2013.
“We know Nitish Kumar is a yoga enthusiast. And that is what is important. Please do not politicise the issue,” said Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who was assigned by the party to take part in the celebrations in Patna.
Opposition RJD latched on to the issue of Kumar's absence from the International Yoga Day celebrations and launched an attack on him.
Considering the fact that due to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's efforts, the UN had declared June 21 as the International Yoga Day, the BJP and its allies, like the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP), took part in the associated events with enthusiasm across the state.
Union ministers Ram Vilas Paswan and Upendra Kushwaha, who head the LJP and the RLSP respectively, took part in the celebrations at Hajipur in Vaishali district, which is the Lok Sabha constituency of the former.
Union Ministers Radha Mohan Singh and Giriraj Singh, both from the BJP, took part in the celebrations held in their respective parliamentary constituencies of Motihari and Nawada.