Modi’s Yoga Day celebrations in IIOJK criticized as disgraceful gimmick
London: Renowned Kashmiri intellectual Syed Inayatullah Andrabi, currently based in London, has sharply criticized Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir to lead the International Yoga Day celebrations on Friday (tomorrow).
According to Kashmir Media Service, Andrabi expressed his views in a series of tweets on X, condemning Modi’s visit to lead the International Yoga Day celebrations as an extremely disgraceful act, and a cheap gimmick aimed at deceptively projecting before the world a Hindu-centered image of Kashmir, undermining its original and real Islamic identity.
Andrabi argued that the celebration is a strategic move to ‘reinforce India’s 76-year-long administrative and military control over Kashmir using the soft power of Yoga – the so-called fitness regime, which has now been integrated as a secular-cultural component in India’s comprehensive power-projection strategy’.
“The spectacle of Modi’s event is scandalous and morally unacceptable,” Andrabi stated, noting that just last month, the Kashmiri people vehemently confirmed their complete rejection of New Delhi’s rule by turning out in droves to reject every and anything associated with Indian governance, including BJP affiliates like Sajjad Lone, as well as those commonly identified as iconic symbols of Indian rule in Kashmir like Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti.
