Surya namaskar a yogic exercise unconnected with religon: Digvijaya

Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh on Thursday took to twitter to air his views on the row over fatwa against yogic exercise Surya Namaskar. “Match Fixing between BJP/RSS and Jamiat Islami over Surya Namaskar issue in MP. Surya Namaskar is a Yogic Excercise unconnected with Religon,” he tweeted. Meanwhile, the Madhya Pradesh government will try to create a world record today with thousands of students performing the Yogic ‘Surya Namaskar’ exercise, Muslim leaders have equated it with idol worship and issued a fatwa against it. Leaders of the minority community have termed the move as un-Islamic and equated it with idol-worship, which is prohibited in Islam. They also issued a fatwa in this regard yesterday which was also ratified by the Shahar Qazi, Sayyed Mushtaq Ali Nadvi. The school education department has made elaborate arrangements to ensure maximum participation in the Surya Namaskar exercise so that a world record can be created by registering the feat in the Guinness Book of records, officials said. [caption id=“attachment_178850” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“A worshipper waits for sunrise to offer prayers during the final day of the Chhat festival. Reuters”]  [/caption] Directives have been issued to all the government and government-aided schools to ensure maximum participation in the exercise so that it can become a world record. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has stated that the participation in the exercise is not compulsory. State School Education Minister, Archana Chitnis told reporters, “Surya Namaskar is a Yogic exercise aimed at improving one’s health and those not interested in taking part in it have an option to stay away from it. Sun is neither saffron nor green.” However, Muslim leaders have termed the move as an attempt to saffronise the education system. PTI