Dubai: Controversial Indian yoga guru Baba Ramdev will be the chief guest at the second International Yoga Day event to be held in Dubai next month.
At a press conference held to announce the details of the event on Monday, the Consul-General of India in Dubai Anurag Bhushan said Baba Ramdev was invited because he is an exponent of yoga and had popularised it among the masses.
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Baba Ramdev |
The controversies surrounding the yoga guru should not be a hindrance for benefiting from his yoga sessions, he said.
“That is not my concern,” Bhushan later said in reply to a question by Gulf News.
“My concern is to present different schools of yoga to people here and convince them to adopt it as part of their lifestyle for health, harmony and happiness, which also happen to be the cornerstones of Dubai government.”
The yoga guru, who is also an industrialist-cum-politician known for making controversial statements in India, would not deliver a speech and would only conduct sessions on yoga to the participants, he added.
Bhushan, who started advocating yoga after benefiting from it for chronic back pain, said people here should benefit from hassle-free yoga sessions that do not involve heavy equipment or costly memberships as in gyms. He said those those suffering from work pressure, obesity and even schoolchildren carrying the burden of heavy bags could benefit from yoga.
With the success of last year’s first International Yoga Day (IYD) event, this year’s event will witness an even greater lineup of activities and expects bigger participation.
Learning from last year’s experience, the event has been moved indoors this time.
In view of the weekend holiday during the month of Ramadan, it has also been scheduled three days ahead of International Yoga Day. It will now be held on June 18 at the Dubai World Trade Centre Halls 1 to 4 and Shaikh Saeed Halls after iftar on that day.
Rashid Al Kamali, head of Events Department at the Dubai Sports Council, said the event is organised by the consulate in association with the Council under the patronage of Shaikh Ahmad Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, president of the UAE Olympic Committee and president of the Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Creative Sports Award.
“Yoga has brought us together here in the city of Dubai, the city of happiness. This is what we want to see in Dubai...events that make people healthy and happy,” said Al Kamali.
Javad Khoramifar, marketing director of XDubai that had organised the two-day XYoga event, said DTCM and XYoga are also supporting the IYD event to ensure yoga is practised on a regular basis and more people take to it. Mats for the participants will be provided by XYoga.
The lineup of IYD activities will be announced through the website www.iyd.ae and social media pages of the event. In the run up to the event, the consulate and IYD volunteers will organise live sessions about yoga at media offices, schools and on social media.
Dubai-based yoga master Ramshad, who practises Nirvana Yoga, conducted an interactive demonstration of office yoga for the media present at the press conference. He said simple stretching and breathing yoga techniques that can be done in a few minutes at workplaces can immensely help in improving concentration, productivity and relaxation and rectify postural pains.
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What: International Yoga Day event
When: June 18
Where: Dubai World Trade Convention and Exhibition Centre
