Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Monday claimed that yoga originated in Nepal and not in India.
He also said that yoga came into existence in Nepal long before India became a country.
“Much before the existence of India as a nation, yoga was and has been practiced in Nepal. Yoga did not originate in India. When yoga was discovered, India was not constituted,” Oli said in his address on International Yoga Day.
“There was no country like India then because there were just several fringe states. So, yoga originated in Nepal or around Uttarakhand. Yoga did not originate in India,” he added.
He also claimed that the sages who had discovered yoga could not deserve much recognition.
The prime minister also claimed that Nepal could not popularize the practice of yoga across the globe but India had been able to do so.
“We never gave credit to our sages who discovered yoga. We have always talked about professors and their contributions. But we could not put our claim [on yoga] rightly,” Oli said.
“We could not take it across the globe. Indian Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi made yoga famous by proposing to celebrate International Yoga Day on the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. Then it got international recognition,” he added.
In July last year, Oli raised controversy by claiming that Lord Rama was born in his country.
“Ayodhyapuri was in Nepal. Balmiki Ashram was also in Nepal near Ayodhyapuri. Sita died in Devghat in Nepal, close to Ayodhyapuri and Balmiki Ashram,” he had claimed.