THE government’s exhortation to the people to practice yoga and the mindless gimmicks over the observation of International Yoga Day smack of its intent to impose a fascistic cultural homogeneity on a culturally heterogeneous population. Last year, it was at Narendra Modi’s insistence that the United Nations General Assembly declared June 21 as International Yoga Day. Last year Modi also created a separate ministry – AYUSH – an acronym for Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy. Lately, the Ministry of Ayush has been flooding all mobile phones with text messages urging users to practise yoga and observe International Yoga Day. This is nothing but an unwarranted intrusion into the choices and lifestyles of citizens, a nefarious attempt to subvert individual choice and one more dastardly step towards the Hinduisation of the country. While yoga remains a fitness regimen preferred by many, let us oppose and defeat all attempts by the fascist forces to use it as a tool to implement their heinous design of foisting majoritarianism and throttling democracy.