Will take on civic body over Suryanamaskar issue: Samajwadi Party

The Samajwadi Party (SP), which has spearheaded public opinion against making Suryanamaskar compulsory in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) schools, has accused the municipal commissioner of acting under the Bharatiya Janata Party-run state government’s pressure. It has promised to fight with vigour if the BMC does not budge and withdraw its resolution making the pose compulsory.

As one and a half weeks have passed since the SP served a legal notice to the municipal commissioner, threatening to take the BMC to court if he did not withdraw the resolution within seven days, the SP has now declared it would file a writ petition in the high court during this week.

SP leader Rais Shaikh said, “We had approached the municipal commissioner several times and asked him to withdraw the resolution, and take action against the education official responsible for sending out notices to schools to make yoga mandatory during morning prayers even before the proposal was passed in the civic general body meeting.” He said, “No action has been taken against that official yet.”

The SP has also accused the BMC of approaching Isha Foundation, which is an organisation with expertise in yoga training, to give preliminary lessons to school kids, even though the resolution has faced opposition in society.

Mr Shaikh said, “When we confronted the administration, it said the proposal was verbally withdrawn, and no schools would practice Suryanamaskar. However, we have demanded not just verbal intimation, but an official withdrawal of the resolution.”