The AYUSH ministry may request the Union government to declare the International Yoga Day (IYD), which falls on June 21, as a public holiday if such a demand is made, Ayush minister Shripad Naik said.
Speaking ahead of the second International Yoga Day celebrations, he said that his ministry would consider such a demand and request Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the interest of promoting a practice with multiple benefits to the masses, as per PTI.
“It is not needed, nobody has demanded that. Last year, also no such demand came. But if the demand comes, I will request the Prime Minister to do so.
“Yoga’s time is early morning. It will go on around 8 am. There is no need of a holiday but if there is a demand for that, we will request the government,” Naik said, while speaking at an event ‘Yoga for Holistic Health – Recent Researches’ in Delhi.
June 21 this year falls on Tuesday while last year, it fell on a Sunday.
If the government goes ahead with this, it’ll add to the current 17 central government holidays annually and the 34 restricted holidays that vary from state to state.
While the idea of yet another mandatory holiday may seem like a good one to some, there was a lot of opposition to the idea on social media.
Some rightly pointed out that making it a holiday will kill its very purpose
India can do without adding yet another unproductive day to the calendar, some said
Some others could just see what a holiday would reduce Yoga Day to