Mumbai: AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Thursday alleged that Maharashtra government, which has decided to celebrate the International Yoga Day in educational institutes on June 21, was forcing the Muslims to take part in something that is prohibited in Islam.
State education minister Vinod Tawde said the AIMIM leader was “only interested in politicising the issue”, and made it clear that not observing the yoga day won’t invite any punitive action.
“The government has no right to make yoga compulsory for children. While doing yoga, one needs to do surya-namaskar, which means you pray to the sun. The government needs to understand Muslims cannot pray to anybody except Allah. Secondly, it will be Ramzan that day. Why put people through unnecessary physical stress in our holy month?” Mr Owaisi said.
Instead of promoting yoga, the government can promote other sports like martial arts and Indian wrestling which do not hurt Muslim sentiments, he said.
“First the state government denied reservations to Muslims despite a High Court order, then came the beef ban. Now, it is yoga. Why is the government thrusting its ideology on us? Why is the government instead not thinking about the farmers who are committing suicide?” he said.
