MP govt defy protest, hold mass Surya Namaskar in schools

Giving no heed to protests from members of the minority community, the BJP-led government in Madhya Pradesh went ahead with its plan in organising mass Surya Namaskar in government schools on Thursday.

Reports said about 10 million people, including 50 lakh students, took part in the mass exercise that was expected to get into the Guinness Book of Records.

Muslim leaders termed the move 'un-Islamic and issued a fatwa against it on Wednesday. The MP unit of the Coordination Committee for Indian Muslims (CCIM) even reportedly set up watch committees across the state for the event.

Earlier, in 2009 the High Court had forbid authorities from compelling any student for participating in the mass Surya Namaskar.

"The government has violated the 2009 Madhya Pradesh High Court Order by making schools mandatory to organize the ritual of Surya Namaskar. There are many schools that faced pressure from the education department to conduct Surya Namaskar orally," a prominent Christian body, Isai Mahasangh (IMS), said in a release.

"We have different religious followers living together in this state of Madhya Pradesh. Government is trying to divide young minds by introducing religious activities pertaining to one particular religion," IMS state general secretary Jerry Paul said.

The Christian body stated that the event violated Article 28 of the Indian Constitution that cautions against imparting religious instruction in schools that are maintained out of state funds.

Thursday's event was an effort to break the Kazakhstan's record of holding world's largest aerobics demonstration.

The Guinness Book of World Record in largest aerobics demonstration is with Kazakhstan in which 48, 45,098 people had participated.

Defending his decision, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan said, the participation in Surya Namaskar exercise was totally upto the choice of the participants. "I never said it was compulsory. I feel Surya Namaskar is very good for keeping fit it a scientific process so we are promoting it."