International Yoga Day: Ram Madhav questions Hamid Ansari’s absence, sparks row

New Delhi: BJP general secretary Ram Madhav on Sunday stoked a controversy by questioning Vice-President Hamid Ansari’s absence at the Yoga Day event in Delhi, but later apologised after he was criticised on the social media platform.

“Two questions. Did RS TV dat runs on tax payers money completely black out Yoga Day event? While President participated d VP gave a miss (sic),” the RSS leader tweeted.

Drawing flak on Twitter, Mr Madhav later apologised tweeting, “I am informed dat d VP was unwell. I withdrew my tweet. My apologies because d institution of VP deserves respect (sic).”

Social media attacked Madhav with some dubbing his criticism of the Vice President as a “foot in the mouth asana” and that he can destroy the divinity of yoga in the name of religious fundamentalism. Later, Mr Madhav deleted both the tweets. However, Vice-President’s office on Sunday night said that he was not invited to the event.