Not much difference between yoga and namaaz: Eknath Khadse

Making it clear that the government has not made yoga mandatory, Minister for Minority Affairs Eknath Khadse on Tuesday said there wasn't much difference between yoga and namaaz. He also said namaaz was a type of yoga.

He was responding to a question asked by scribes over criticism by All-India Majlis-E-ittheadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) on introducing yoga at school level and making it compulsory for schoolchildren to participate in International Yoga Day on June 21.

Advocating efforts on part of the government for celebrating International Yoga Day, Khadse said, "If at all someone is opposing it on religious grounds, aiming at political gains, let them do that, but the BJP won't do it."

Khadse refuted the allegation that yoga was being made mandatory to push the Hindutva agenda. He clarified that the government has not made it mandatory and added that celebrating yoga day was not related to Hindutva and that this criticism was wrong.

The minister said, "In a way, performing yoga for keeping fit and offering namaaz are similar. Namaaz is nothing but a type of yoga exercise; it hardly matters whether you do it by remaining vertical or going horizontal. It hardly makes any difference whether you keep fit in the name of the sun or in the name of Allah."