Thread by @churumuri

🪡@narendramodi will take part in the International Yoga Day show in #Mysore on June 21.

In a nation that buys ‘The Daily Spectacle’, this is just another dot in @PMOIndia’s diary.

But what goes into an event like this—for hashtags to trend for a few hours on Tuesday? #YogaDay

2️⃣ Modi doing #Yoga in #Mysuru is a big deal.

All three great gurus of the 20th century—T.Krishnamacharya, B.K.S. Iyengar, K. Pattabhi Jois—grew under the patronage of the Maharajas of Mysore.

UN designated June 21 as #InternationalDayofYoga only after Modi became PM in 2014.

3️⃣ Still, a one-hour show led by the PM at Mysore Palace takes some doing.

Coverage in Mysore’s local dailies #StarOfMysore and #Andolana gives a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes.

It is a sobering lesson of how a partipatory democracy can be a made-for-TV spectacle.

4️⃣ Fourteen committees including a core committee were formed to oversee @PMOIndia’s visit.

Union minister @JoshiPralhad flew from Delhi for a recce.

In last 20 days, all attention of central, state and city personnel has been on the 15 hours Modi will spend. @Star_Of_Mysore

5️⃣ Naturally, with so many committees around, there had to be a “high-level meeting”.

So, Karnataka’s chief minister @BSBommai—reeling under charges of 40% corruption and 100% communalism—forms one more committee with 23 members.

Naturally, @CMofKarnataka is its chairman.

6️⃣ Mysore City Corporation sent an estimate of Rs 15 crore to the BJP-run government just for the few roads @narendramodi’s entourage will use on his 15-hour visit.

All other expenses—flight from Bangalore, flight to Delhi, hotel, security, publicity, etc—are easy to imagine.

So desperate is the urge to put on a good show that less than 36 hours before @narendramodi descends, work is still on.

For a change, bulldozers and excavators are being used for the purpose they were meant to.

7️⃣ L.K. Advani famously called @narendramodi a “brilliant events manager”.

#Andolana reports the Centre has employed an “event mangement company” to handle the stage for the Yoga Day show at #MysorePalace.

Costs, method of selection: unknown. @moayush #YogaForHumanity

8️⃣ Since every event in #AmritKaal is also an induction programme, each of the 15,000 participants who will join Modi to twist and turn for the world to see, will get a free breakfast, a yoga mat, a mobile pouch, and a shoe bag.

Cost, method of selection: unknown. @moayush

9️⃣ How Modi’s co-artistes were chosen is a story.

As can be expected in a small town with a big rep, people were falling over each other to be with Yogi No.1. But SPG, which guards the PM, dashed some hopes.

As always, Aadhaar solves every problem—and meets its key objective.

1️⃣0️⃣ Who should be on the dais with @narendramodi has resulted in a tug-of-war between Mysore’s artless MP Pratap Simha—and everybody else.

S.A. Ramdas, BJP’s rape-accused MLA from K.R. Constituency, where Mysore Palace is situated, is miffed that he is being kept out. #Andolana

1️⃣1️⃣ Because Mysore’s MP suggested that Yaduveer Wadiyar—the adopted son of the late scion of the erstwhile kingdom—might not get to be on the main stage with Modi, folks held a protest, and organised an online campaign, against the “insult”.

He will have post-yoga ‘thindi’.

1️⃣2️⃣ Incredibly, Saraswathi Jois—the daughter of K. Pattabhi Jois, one of Mysore’s three great gurus who took ‘ashtanga yoga’ to the west—and who has herself taught the art for 45 years, has not been invited by the petty minds handling the show.
@PMOIndia @narendramodi @moayush

1️⃣3️⃣ Notwithstanding the internal politics—and befitting a reality show on TV—there have been two “rehearsals”.

One ooru, one asana.

The rehearsals were flagged off by local mutt heads, one a Lingayat, the other a Brahmin, one of whom @PMOIndia is slated to visit. #YogaDay

1️⃣4️⃣ As with everything in #NewIndia, the stick comes before the carrot.

Police have been told not to take leave till @PMOIndia leaves.

And staff at the temple atop Mysore’s immoveable treadmill, Chamundi Hill, have been warned their wages will be cut if they bunk work.

1️⃣5️⃣ In the midst of all the preening, #Andolana boldly asks if Mysore’s ‘vikas’ can only happen if @narendramodi visits.

And, the former deputy chief minister Dr H.C. Mahadevappa reminds @mepratap to ask @narendramodi what happened to his promise to make a Paris out of Mysore.

1️⃣6️⃣ Oh, and one final thing.

Narendra Modi will not stay at the Lalitha Mahal Palace, which was built incidentally, and ironically, for a Viceroy’s visit, and was once one of ITDC’s most magnificent hotels.

He will spend the night at a Radisson Blu. #InternationalDayofYoga

1️⃣7️⃣ So why did @narendramodi wait 8 years to grace #InternationalDayofYoga in the ground zero of yoga?

Answer: elections in Karnataka are due in 2023. BJP is on the backfoot. Last week, the party resoundingly lost in an election to the legislative council.

1️⃣8️⃣ The stage-managed event and the expenses—all for a few minutes—reveals what goes on every day at every event.

It can be argued this is for a good cause, that it unites people. But what is the point of yoga if its practitioners return to anger, hatred and venom soon after?

An advisory issued by the Mysore City police suggests that at least 498 buses have been deployed to ferry crowds for @narendramodi’s events in Mysore.

What are the costs and who will bear them: unknown, but easy to guess.

#InternationalDayofYoga