In his address on International Yoga Day, on 21st June, Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli once again has courted controversy.
He claimed that ” Yoga originated in Nepal, not in India. At the time when Yoga came into existence, there was no existence of India; it was divided into factions,”
He also added that India did not exist as a nation when Nepal started practicing Yoga. He stated, “Much before the existence of India as a nation, yoga was practiced in Nepal. When yoga was discovered, India had not been constituted. There was no country like India then; there were just several fringe states. So, yoga originated in Nepal or around Uttarakhand. Yoga did not originate in India,”
International Day of Yoga has been celebrated annually on June 21 since 2015, following its inception in the United Nations General Assembly in 2014. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his UN address, had suggested the date of 21 June, as it is the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and shares a special significance in many parts of the world.
Known for his various controversial statement, PM Oli earlier in July, last year claimed that, the birthplace of Lord Rama is not Ayodhya. But it is in Nepal.
“Although real Ayodhya lies at Thori, a city in the west of Birgunj, India has claimed that Lord Rama was born there. Due to these continuous claims even we have believed that deity Sita got married to Prince Rama of India. However, in reality, Ayodhya is a village lying west of Birgunj,” Mr. Oli claimed at an event organised at Prime Minister’s residence in Kathmandu.
