Overview
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit West Bengal on June 20–21 and will lead the national International Day of Yoga main event at Kolkata’s Red Road on June 21, organisers say.
- The Calcutta High Court disposed of a petition on Friday after the state clarified that the chief secretary’s communication asking staff to join Yoga Day programmes was only a voluntary appeal and not mandatory.
- Officials have planned multi-day spectacles including a mass Red Road session, synchronized demonstrations on about 500 boats on the Hooghly, a large drone show and cultural programmes with roughly 35,000–38,000 seats registered for the main venue.
- Preparations and prolonged closures have drawn political criticism and local complaints from residents, lawyers and Sundarbans boat operators who say vessel requisitions and traffic restrictions have disrupted travel and tourism bookings.
- The AYUSH ministry and cultural bodies frame the events as health promotion and soft power and are pushing year-round initiatives such as 'Yoga 365', which organisers say aims to convert a single-day observance into sustained public participation.