In 2014, months after the general election results, the new Prime Minister of India proposed to the United Nations General Assembly that June 21 be earmarked globally as International Day of Yoga. India’s fitness conversation had begun. On the appointed day in 2015 there was yoga aplenty. Around 35,000 people attended the 35-minute yoga session on Rajpath. There were visuals of yoga being performed on the Siachen glacier and the high seas. This was also the year of the Dadri lynching. 2016. Rohith Vemula suicide. JNU sedition row. Lynchings in the name of gau raksha. Demonetisation. On the occasion of the second International Yoga Day a grand event was organised in Chandigarh. There was special emphasis on participation of the handicapped. Reportedly, on this occasion, the government spent Rs 16.40 crore and Rs 18.10 crore in 2015 and 2016, respectively.
Hum Fit Toh
2017. The highest cow-related deaths were registered this year. According to Indiaspend, 28 died and 63 such incidents were recorded. Uttar Pradesh reported no deaths but had the highest number of cases. That year, the PM along with UP CM Yogi Adityanath led 51,000 assembled at Lucknow’s Ramabhai Ambedkar Sabha Sthal in asanas. Congress workers did the shavaasana to protest farmer killings in Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh. The PM said, “Yoga not only enlightens the body but also the soul.” 2018 was the year of the agrarian crisis. In May, sports minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore launched the Hum Fit Toh India Fit campaign. Rathore lobbed a fitness challenge to cricketer Virat Kohli, who in turn challenged the PM who replied with a fitness video. On November 30, thousands of farmers marched towards the Parliament. That day the PM was addressing participants at the Yoga for Peace event in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Fitness Ki Dose
2019. Year of Pulwama and Balakot, general elections and abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A, and finally, the Citizenship Amendment Act. Assam burned. On the occasion of Yoga Day, the PM said, “Yoga is above religion, caste, colour, gender and region, it is above everything.” Two months later, he launched the Fit India Movement. This is the year of The Virus, and while we have had to make do with an indoor Yoga Day, the fitness conversation cannot be paused. Farm bills, labour bills, angsty health workers, Rajya Sabha in disarray, a roiling Bollywood --- but the fitness talk continues to flow. Last week, on the second anniversary of the Fit India Movement, the PM took time out to speak to “fitness influencers” and citizens. Fit India protocols were unveiled. And the PM said, “Fitness ki dose, aadha ghanta roz.”
