Puducherry: The first signs of strained relations between Puducherry Lt Governor, Kiran Bedi, who led the celebrations on the Beach road, and Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy surfaced on International Yoga Day.
The CM and all his Cabinet colleagues who were to participate in the yoga show in Pondy instead went to Yanam to attend different programmes. The CM is due to leave for New Delhi Wednesday evening.
According to sources, Narayanasamy is not happy with the moves of Lt Governor Bedi, who he feels is unnecessarily interfering in matters falling under his jurisdiction. The Chief Minister has been maintaining in public that there is no friction with Ms Bedi, but the first cracks have appeared already.
Kiran Bedi participated in the mass yoga demonstration at the beach road here on Tuesday which was attended by over 6,000 students from schools and colleges besi-des volunteers of different organisations. The programme which started at 6.30 in the morning lasted for over 90 minutes and the participants performed 40 different asanas in yoga at a stretch of four kilometers on the beach road.
Addressing the participants in the yoga demonstration Ms Bedi said that yoga is the greatest gift the country has given to the world.' "It is the greatest gift that we can give ourselves as yoga unites hum-anity and pave way for world peace," she added. Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking up the cause of Yoga, the Lt Governor said that yoga belongs to everyone and it will transform humanity to peace and added that she will do her best to promote yoga.
At the same time Chief Minister V Narayanasamy and his cabinet colleagues who were scheduled to participate in the yoga day celebrations skipped the program and instead went to Yanam to attend different programs . In the evening Narayanasamy will leave for New Delhi to meet the Prime Minister and other union ministers.
Though the Chief Minister maintaines that there is no friction between the government and the Lt Governor, the new development is seen as a turn in the supposed tussle between Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanaswamy and the newly-appointed Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi.
According to the reports Narayanasamy is not happy with the moves of the governor and feels that the governor is unnecessarily interfering the jurisdiction of the Chief Minister.
Ms Bedi on the other hand said that she was merely performing her duties and there is no politics in yoga. The Congress returned to Puducherry after five year gap in last month's assembly elections and days after the election result former IPS officer Kiran Bedi who was the chief ministerial candidate of BJP in Delhi election was appointed as the new Lt Governor of Puducherry Director General of Police of Sunil Kumar Gautam, Vice Chancellor of Pondicherry University Anisha Basheer Khan, officials of various departments and representatives of different organisations also participated in the yoga day celebrations.
