Kiran Bedi performs yoga at Rajpath in New Delhi
Before Prime Minister Narendra Modi led nearly 37,000 people in yoga asanas on a mat in the heart of Delhi, he said the worldwide celebration of International Yoga Day would herald "a new era of peace." Spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said, "Yoga is not just asanas, it is a state of mind where you have a sense of responsibility for the whole planet."
But the potential of yoga was stretched thin by the BJP's Kiran Bedi, who tweeted that the mass outdoor yoga session had delivered a break for the scorching capital.
The reactions, reductively, were - seriously?
In other effusive tweets which lavished the PM with praise for his yoga initiative, Ms Bedi, who unsuccessfully ran for Chief Minister of Delhi earlier this year, posted selfies of herself at Rajpath, the boulevard where the PM, who was meant to deliver a speech, surprised many by taking to a mat to celebrate yoga with poses like the Cobra and Half-Camel.
In his maiden address to the United Nations General Assembly in September last year, PM Modi proposed to dedicate a day devoted to the ancient Indian discipline, prompting the UN to proclaim June 21 as the International Day of Yoga.