CM V Narayanasamy and his ministerial colleagues, scheduled to participate in yoga day celebration, were conspicuous by their absence.
Lt Governor Kiran Bedi led the second International Yoga Day celebrations in the Union Territory but Chief Minister V Narayanasamy and his ministerial colleagues gave the event a miss.
Bedi took part in a mass yoga demonstration attended by 6,000 school and college students, officials and NCC volunteers and performed as many as 40 different asanas lasting nearly 90 minutes from 6.30 am on the Beach Road in Puducherry.
Narayanasamy, heading the Congress government, and his ministerial colleagues, scheduled to participate in the yoga day celebration, were conspicuous by their absence and visited Yanam to participate in some other government functions there. They later left for New Delhi from Chennai to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others in the capital to take up projects related to the union territory, an official said.
The Chief Minister had already expressed the inability to be present at the yoga function in Puducherry due to the official engagements in Yanam, the official said when contacted.
Bedi told reporters that yoga "is the best gift India has given to nine billion people across the world. I want to thank my leader Prime Minister Narendra Modi who took this cause up in General Assembly of the United Nations (for declaring International Yoga Day)..." she said. By the initiative, Modi had united the humanity, she said.
Earlier, addressing the participants, Bedi said: "We are all moving towards one world. Yoga is real humanity. Yoga is coming from our Vedas. All over the world, yoga is being celebrated as it unites mind, body and soul. Yoga stands for unity and harmony."
Director General of Police of Puducherry Sunil Kumar Gautam, Secretary to Lt Governor G Theva Needhi Das, Vice Chancellor of Pondicherry University Anisa Basheer Khan, officials of various departments and representatives of different organisations were among the participants. The entire two-km stretch of beach road was thronged by long rows of participants.
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