Right wing organisation ‘Bajrang Dal’ has announced its plan to start a nation wide campaign to pre-pone Raksha Bandhan, the Hindu festival celebrating the relation between brothers and sisters to February 14 every year.
Talking to our correspondent, the Delhi Unit head of Bajrang Dal, Mr. Prem Singh Dhoomal said, “We have tried everything to persuade the younger generation from celebrating Valentine’s day. As it is we bash up couples on this day and force them to tie rakhi. Why not formally celebrate it as Raksha Bandhan?”. The organisation will start a nationwide campaign from February 10th with Rakhi Sawant formally kickstarting the event by tying the sacred thread to her erstwhile fiancé Elesh Purujanwala.
While the move has been welcomed by a large section of Indian society, particularly members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Sri Ram Sena, leading card manufactures have criticized the move. “This will directly affect our business interests”, said Amit Singh, CEO Archies Cards. “Who gives gifts to their brothers or sisters? Tagging all of them in a ‘Happy rakhi’ pic on facebook is how most people celebrate Raksha Bandhan, don’t they?, quizzed Prakash Kumar whose company ‘Hallmark’ plans to conduct a fresh market survey and introduce combo offers like free ‘rakhi’ with every heart shaped balloon.
Meanwhile the younger generation has differing views on the day. Shaalu, a third year commerce student loves the idea of Valentine’s day and has already started googling mushy lines to sms her boyfriend. “I will go on a romantic dinner with my ‘Jaan’ irrespective of how others celebrate it”, she said. On the other hand Deepu, a first year engineering student hates the idea of Valentine’s day. “It is so depressing man. FOSLAs like us are forced to remain indoors. I don’t mind others celebrating it as long as they show some nice movie on television that day. I am sick of watching ‘Indra, the tiger’!”, he complained. While Jassie Jazz, a local DJ thought that the idea to pre-pone Raksha Bandhan was a good one. “Now I can safely go on a date with my girl-friend. Everyone will think that she is my sister and we can enjoy quality time together without raising any suspicion.”, he added excitedly.
Arundhati Roy has meanwhile blasted right wing organisations for communalising the day and said that she plans to observe it as a day of solidarity with the Maoists and the Kashmiri Separatists. She even showed some stone shaped cards that she plans to send to the Indian Military.
When contacted, St. Valentine refused to comment.
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