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The entire globe celebrated the International Yoga Day on June 21st. On this occasion, KP Sharma Oli, the Prime Minister of Nepal claimed that yoga did not originate from India saying that it was practiced in Nepal years before India emerged as a country. "When yoga was discovered, India was not constituted. There was no country called India. So yoga originated in Nepal or in Uttarakhand. This is clear that yoga did not originate from India" told KP Sharma. He went on to say that the credit was not given to the sages who really discovered yoga. Oli said that India took yoga across the globe and made the practice famous internationally.

He said that they talked about the professors of yoga and their contributions but never focused on taking the credit for discovering yoga. KP Sharma Oli said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made yoga famous after he proposed celebrating the International Yoga Day. It is then yoga got international recognition. Earlier to this, Oli also landed into controversy for his remarks on Lord Rama in July 2020. He said that the Hindu God Rama was born in the region of Madi or Ayodhyapuri that is located in Chitwan district of Nepal. He said Balmiki Ashram was in Nepal which is close to Ayodhyapuri. This triggered enough controversies in the past and Oli is back to controversies with his comments about the origin of yoga.

By Siva Kumar