Meet the yoga teacher from Sharjah who forced the EC to bare its teeth

Harpreet Mansukhani's PIL led four top politicians, who had made provocative speeches, to be temporarily banned from campaigning

Even meditation, it seems, cannot insulate one from the news of late. Upset by reports of the communal and casteist contortions of some Indian political leaders, a yoga teacher based in Sharjah filed a petition ahead of the Lok Sabha elections against the use of divisive rhetoric. It was Harpreet Mansukhani’s PIL filed in March, based on which the Supreme Court recently questioned the Election Commission, that forced the poll panel to invoke its extraordinary powers on Monday and temporarily ban Yogi Adityanath, Mayawati, Azam Khan and Maneka Gandhi from campaigning. With the four leading political figures who had made