Haridwar: Amit Shah inaugurates Patanjali varsity

Haridwar: Yog guru Baba Ramdev organized Sannyas Diksha Mahotsav in Haridwar. On this occasion, Union Home Minister Amit Shah performed Havan with Baba Ramdev. Amit Shah also inaugurated the newly constructed building of Patanjali University. Shah said he is happy to see that ancient Indian knowledge will derive new energy from the "army" of young sanyasis prepared by Patanjali.

He said Ramdev's individual contribution to yoga, Ayurveda and swadeshi was more than an institution could do for them. Shah praised Ramdev's close aide Acharya Balkrishna for his extensive research work in the field of Ayurveda, saying he had published more than 500 research papers on Ayurveda.

Shah performed a havan at Patanjali Yogpeeth before beginning his address. Earlier in the day, Shah hailed the central government's New Education Policy for its emphasis on learning in the mother tongue and universal education based on the teachings of Indian visionaries such as Mahatma Gandhi and Dayanand Saraswati. Addressing the 113th convocation of the Gurukula Kangri here, Shah credited the university (deemed to be) for the revival of vedic education in India and combining it with modern education.

Shah paid tributes to the university's founder Swami Shraddhanand saying he set India's education system free from the stranglehold of the British and revived the country's vedic education system, all the while emphasising culture and modern education.

The home minister also addressed a programme at Rishikul to mark the total computerisation of 670 cooperative centres. "It has been done in just 17 months. I heartily congratulate Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and Health and Cooperative Minister Dhan Singh Rawat on this achievement," Shah said. Shah gave the credit for this achievement to the separate cooperative ministry set up under the leadership of the prime minister. Computerisation of cooperative platforms will lead to total transparency and greater fiscal discipline, Shah, who is also the Union cooperative minister, said.