‘Only unrefined intelligence can’t spot sport in asanas’

AHMEDABAD: Baba Ramdev on Tuesday stressed that yoga should be categorized as a sport. He said that people who believe yoga is not a sport should refine their intelligence.

Ramdev’s comments

came at a time when the

Union government

is still in a dilemma over the inclusion of yoga in the competitive sports category.

Ramdev was talking on the sidelines of a yoga camp at the GMDC ground in the city. He said yoga should be an Olympics sport. When asked for his views on the Union government’s stand, he said: “The government can put yoga in the purview of either Ayush or sports ministry.” He said yoga should be seen as a sport as it is an exercise too. “Yoga should be seen from a larger perspective. But some people are talking orthodox and frivolous things about yoga,” he said. “They are just showing their ignorance. I think such people should refine their intelligence.”

TOI had reported about the reversal of the stand of the Union sports ministry on yoga. It had categorized it as a sport in 2015 only to reverse the decision in 2016. Recently, Chandrasinh Jhala, the vice-chancellor of the country’s first yoga university, Lakulish University, had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention to include yoga in the category of competitive sports. Modi had inaugurated the university in 2013.