Sisodia demands explanation for alleged attempt to sabotage Delhi’s yoga initiative

New Delhi, 26 October 2022: The secretary of the Directorate of Training and Technical Education has been confronted by Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia with a show-cause notice asking her to give an explanation for her alleged attempts to “discontinue” the “Dilli Ki Yogshala” programme, the Aam Admi Party (AAP) administration’s flagship initiative to offer free yoga classes to thousands of people.

After learning that the decision to end the yoga programme was made at a Board of Governors meeting of the Delhi Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research University (DPSRU) held last month on the “insistence” of the IAS officer, Sisodia gave the notice to the official Alice Vaz.

Arvind Kejriwal, the chief minister, had started the Dilli Ki Yogshala programme last year to offer yoga instructors to Delhi residents free of charge. More than 17000 people attend the daily 590 yoga classes that are now available.

Sisodia further stated that the programme was discontinued during the Board of Governors’ (BOG) 28th meeting on September 30th, at the Secretary’s (TTE) insistence. I’ve also been informed that, despite the fact that the majority of the board of governors members supported keeping the current programme in place, Sisodia wrote in his letter to Alice Vaz that the programme could not be continued because the secretary (TTE) took a strong stance against it.

The officer is alleged “wrongly and violently sought to end” the “Dili yana Yogshala” initiative and “destroy the efforts of the Delhi Government” to offer yoga courses to thousands of Delhi residents, according to Sisodia’s scathing letter.

She chose this stance despite the fact that even the Prime Minister organises promotional events on the International Day of Yoga to encourage people to adopt yoga, it further added.

In the letter, Sisodia questioned, “why was the decision to discontinue the program taken without any discussion with the minister in charge?” In the Board of Governors, the secretary (TTE) represents the NCT of Delhi’s government. It is the secretary’s job and duty to represent the government’s point of view as a representation of it. The administration intends to carry on with the current programme and even expand it in scope. While the secretary was given 24 hours to submit the justification.