It's yoga of politics, Modi govt doing PR through it: Lalu

Criticising the International Yoga Day celebrations, RJD president Lalu Prasad today accused the BJP of indulging in "yoga of politics and not of making the body healthy" and said the Modi government at the Centre is "conducting its own PR through it".

"The entire country knows that this yoga (is) being propagated by the hypocrites of BJP, this yoga is of politics and not of making a body healthy. The Modi government is conducting its own PR (public relations) by advertising something as personal as yoga," Prasad said on a social networking site.

He also posed a question to his followers on whether "the poor in the country need yoga," and quoted an old adage "bhookhe bhajan na hohin Gopala, yeh lo apni kanthi mala" (We cannot pray empty stomach O Gopal, take back this rosary).

Prasad said a World Bank report has pointed out 14 crore people in the country sleep empty stomach and argued, "rickshaw-pullers do not need yoga. Labourers, who toil hard through the day do not need it. Farmers who sweat it out the entire day on their farms have no time for yoga. It is not needed by the poor and people of the weaker section who earn their bread through hard work."

Prasad, who has been leading the charge against the BJP in Bihar after joining hands with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, said yoga was for those who lead a life of luxury without any concern for the deprived and were helping the "capitalists usurp the land of the poor and suck their blood."