Prime Minister Narendra Modi strikes a yoga posture at Capitol Complex in Chandigarh. (Express Photo: Kamleshwar Singh) Prime Minister Narendra Modi strikes a yoga posture at Capitol Complex in Chandigarh. (Express Photo: Kamleshwar Singh)

After 14 months of being constituted as a sport, Yoga has been derecognised as a sport by the Sports Ministry after consulation between ministry officials, officials from Ministry of AYUSH (Department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy) and Department of Personnel and Training.

Yoga was recognised as a sport in September in 2015 and had the stamp of approval coming from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) but now the Sports Ministry has concluded that no National Sports Federation (NSF) can be officially recognised by the Ministry.

The order says the decision to derecognise Yoga came about because “..Yoga has various dimensions/arms in which competitions are not possible.”

The directive and decision was made on December 21 with the letter addressed to The Secretary General, Indian Olympic Association (IOA).

For a sport to be added into the priority list, it should be part of Olympics, Asian Games or Commonwealth Games an exception was made to include Yoga in this list.

Now that Yoga is not being considered as a sport, its entire matter will be handled by the Ministry of AYUSH.

Sports Ministry – Yoga by The Indian Express on Scribd

Yoga had been heavily promoted with its charge taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had been the face of Yoga Day for the past two years.

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