From Rajpath to yoga mat: Military to participate in International Yoga Day

NEW DELHI: Ditching their usual ramrod straight postures, soldiers are now getting ready to contort into different poses never specified in their military drills.

From the top brass on the majestic Rajpath in New Delhi to warship sailors on foreign shores, the armed forces are ready to go the whole hog on International Yoga Day this Sunday.

Sources say a flurry of directives have been issued by the defence ministry as well as the Army, Navy and IAF headquarters to all their commands and units spread across the country to put up "a good show" on June 21 in tune with PM Narendra Modi's initiative on yoga.

A battery of generals with around 3,000 soldiers, sailors and air warriors will be on hand to take part in the mass yoga demonstration on the Rajpath to be led by Modi, for which the Ayush ministry is leaving no stone unturned to ensure the presence of around 35,000 participants to break the existing record in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Concomitantly, many military personnel around the country will also exhibit their physical versatility to mark the day, with "specialists" already holding yoga classes for them and their families. Interestingly, all Indian warships at foreign harbours and ports on overseas deployments have also been instructed to showcase yoga wherever possible on that day.

Incidentally, Modi on Tuesday night tweeted a pic of sailors doing yoga on a warship deck. "Yoga across oceans...remarkable, innovative and appreciable effort by our Navy for #YogaDay", he said

Holding that the "over 6,000 years old physical, mental and spiritual practice having its origins in India aims to transform body and mind", a Service headquarter has instructed its different formations and stations to plan "a minimum of 2-3 hours of activities" in consonance with "the objectives stipulated by the government" on June 21.

Though the communication makes it clear that it's "not compulsory to participate in such yoga camps", it does hold that "all-out efforts should be made to encourage maximum participation of personnel and their families" in the endeavour. Most military personnel will of course not have to huff-and-puff like portly bureaucrats to undertake the "simple and easy Yoga Asanas" specified through booklets and DVDs.

The government is very keen to establish the new world record, as is evident from the letter written from cabinet secretariat to all ministries and departments. Holding that the Ayush ministry had applied for the record in the category of largest yoga demonstration at a single venue, it warns: "If some officials turn up without practice and their performance is not up to the mark, we will run the risk of the record claim being affected."