Baba Ramdev's International Yoga Day program at Har ki Pauri cancelled

A proposed program in which Baba Ramdev was supposed to lead thousands of people in celebrations of the International Yoga Day on June 21 on the banks of the Ganga at Har Ki Pauri in Haridwar has been cancelled.

Ramdev Baba was to perform yogic kriyas at the event along with thousands of enthusiasts, including Bollywood celebrities, to mark the occasion which would have been the first of its kind to be held on the banks of the Ganga.

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The yoga program scheduled to be led by Ramdev under the banner of the Patanjali Yogpeeth and the Ganga Sabha at Har Ki Pauri has been cancelled due to unavoidable reasons, the yoga guru's close aide Acharya Balkrishna told reporters.

However, other programs scheduled to mark the occasion will be held at Patanjali Yogpeeth and its affiliated wings, he added.

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There are speculations in political circles that the program by Ramdev will now be held at Nanded in Maharashtra, where Assembly polls are due later this year.

Sources said the venue was shifted at the request of the BJP top brass that wanted the event to be held either in Maharashtra or Haryana, both of which are poll-bound, the sources said.

Ramdev had announced last week that thousands will join him at Har Ki Pauri on the International Yoga Day to perform yogic kriyas for the first time on the banks of the Ganga on a grand scale.

Terming the proposed program as "historic", he had said that it will represent a synthesis of two important aspects of Indian culture - Yoga and Ganga - both of which have a liberating effect.

"Ganga is said to absolve people of their bad deeds and yoga purges their system of all ailments. These two most important aspects of Indian culture will come together in this event," Ramdev had said.