Commentary on Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's new tax and spending plan has been widespread, and a Hindu leader issued a statement Friday in Nevada concerning the governor's proposal to extend the state sales tax to yoga lessons and services.
Here is the e-mailed press release:
For immediate release
Hindus critical of Connecticut yoga tax proposal
Hindus are critical of Connecticut (USA) Governor Dannel P. Malloy's new proposal of imposing tax on yoga.
Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, who strongly criticized the attempts to regulate yoga in the recent past by various states in USA, urged Governor Malloy to reconsider his proposal and keep the sales tax exemption on yoga.
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that yoga was one of the six systems of orthodox Hindu philosophy whose traces went back to around 2000 BCE. Yoga never had any formal organization and yoga practice had been handed down from one guru to the next.