The Sun had not even set over the “longest day of the year” which yesterday was also celebrated world wide as the International day of Yoga at the initiative of PM Modi, that needless controversies cropped up.
Not satisfied with having 30,000 + people participate at the event which created a new Guinness World record, RSS man and now BJP leader Ram Madhav tweeted about the absence of Vice President Hamid Ansari’s at the event. Not satisfied with just this, he went on to ‘pull up’ Rajya Sabha TV for not showing the event, which contention was at once scotched by RSTV CEO Gurdeep Singh Sappal.. “Baseless rumours. RSTV not just did live telecast of Rajpath event. But also had 3 documentaries, 1 special report today on Yoga”, he tweeted. He also posted the link to the programme on YouTube, saying, “For those who missed it, link to PM’s address on Yoga Day, carried Live on RSTV”.
Later, Madhav tweeted his apology, saying he did not know Ansari was “unwell”. The VP immediately clarified that he did not attend because he was not invited, otherwise he was doing quite well, thank you! That created an embarassment for the Ayush Minister Shripad Naik who had to explain “why the VP was not invited”.
Minister of State for AYUSH Shripad Naik, whose Ministry organised the International Day of Yoga event at Rajpath yesterday, said when Prime Minister is the chief guest at a programme, the President or Vice President cannot be invited as per protocol as the two are above the PM in order of precedence.
“When the Prime Minister is chief guest, then inviting the Vice President is not proper. That’s why we did not send the invite to him. President and Vice President are above the Prime Minister as per order of precedence and we cannot invite them accordingly,” he said.
As the topic trended on Twitter, Madhav deleted both his tweets, including his apology. Sappal tweeted in Hindi, “Ek baar phir RSTV ke khilaaf bebuniyaad afwaah — ki humne Yog Diwas ka blackout kiya. Sarasar jhooth. Aaj Rajpath aur Yog conference se RSTV par live raha (Once again, baseless rumours against RSTV — that we blacked out Yoga Day. Complete lies.
Not to miss an opportunity to get back at the BJP and RSS, Congressand Janata Dal leaders opined that ” this is just the kind of thing you can expect from BJP and RSS. They seek to create a communal divide in everything. There was no need to drag the office of the Vice President into the controversy”.
