In his address on International Yoga Day on Monday, Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli claimed that yoga originated in Nepal and not in India. He stated that yoga was practiced in his country long before the existence of India as a nation.

“Much before the existence of India as a nation, yoga was practiced in Nepal. When yoga was discovered, India had not been constituted. There was no country like India then; there were just several fringe states. So, yoga originated in Nepal or around Uttarakhand. Yoga did not originate in India,” Oli said.

Nepal Prime Minister Oli went on to say that due credit had not been given to the sages who discovered yoga. He also said that his nation had not been able to take yoga across the globe but India had made the practice famous internationally.

Oli stated, “We never gave credit to our sages who discovered yoga. We’ve always talked about professors and their contributions. But we could not put our claim [on yoga] rightly. We could not take it across the globe. Indian Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi made yoga famous by proposing to celebrate International Yoga Day on the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. Then it got international recognition.”

LORD RAM CONTROVERSY

Earlier, Oli courted controversy when he said in July 2020 that Hindu god Ram was born in Madi area or Ayodhyapuri in Nepal’s Chitwan district and not in India’s Ayodhya.

“Ayodhyapuri was in Nepal. Balmiki Ashram was also in Nepal near Ayodhyapuri. Deity Sita died in Devghat in Nepal, close to Ayodhyapuri and Balmiki Ashram,” he had claimed.