Dubai: More than 20,000 people took part in a massive yoga camp headed by famed Indian yoga guru Baba Ramdev on Saturday at Dubai World Trade Centre.
The yoga camp was held to mark the International Yoga Day (IYD), which is officially celebrated on June 21.
Baba Ramdev performed at two separate sessions of more than 90 minutes each, which was attended by the who's who of the Indian community in Dubai along with the masses.
Organised by the Indian Consulate in Dubai, in association with the Dubai Sports Council and XYoga, the event saw participation by young and old as well as men and women of various nationalities.
Dubai-based yoga teacher Bharat Thakur also performed at the event.
The first session began at 7.30pm, while the second session started at 9.30pm.
Ramdev kept people entertained with his timely quips as he moved from one posture to another.
The prolific guru, demonstrated his extreme fitness levels and flexibility by performing non-stop.
"International Yoga Day has arrived in Dubai a few days early," he quipped as he began his session.
He also said yoga is for all and is not restricted to any religion.
Performing one of his postures, he said, it is similar to a posture in Islamic prayer.
Though, known for his controversial statements and far-right leanings in India, Ramdev appeared to be appeasing Muslims in his intermittent remarks, constantly referring to Muslims and Islamic prayer (Salah) during his sessions.
At one point, performing Surya Namaskar (worship of the sun), he said practising these exercises doesn't impact anyone's religion, to the loud cheers of the crowd.
Though, half of the crowd didn't seem to follow his frenetic moves, it was obvious that they thoroughly enjoyed it.
"I am a great admirer of Baba Ramdev and I feel great being here and practising yoga along with him," said Sushma Mukherjee, a participant.
Another participant, Dipu Dholakia said that she is big practitioner of yoga and came to support IYD.
"Instituting IYD was a great idea and it will definitely help in making yoga more popular. Yoga is great for the balance of body and mind and should be practiced by all," said Dholakia.
The participation at the IYD yoga camp was free.
