New Delhi: Now that monkeys have caged Charles Darwin, it is time for the next stage in the evolution of "New India".
A BJP parliamentarian has announced a "Rashtriya Raksha Mahayagya" outside the Red Fort to exorcise "internal and external conspiracies" and pave the way for achieving Narendra Modi's dream of a "New India".
BJP sources feel that Maheish Girri, the East Delhi MP, is organising the event with Hindutva overtones near the Mughal-era fort to catch the eye of the leadership and ensure a ticket for next year's general election.
The idea for the yagna has been floated at a time party boss Amit Shah is said to be reviewing the performance of MPs, several of whom are expected to be replaced with fresh faces.
The sources did not find anything ironical in the assumption that the attention of the party leadership could be grabbed by thinking up such ideas. When Darwin's theory of evolution could be challenged by a minister on the premise that no one saw a monkey turn into a man, Girri's yagna plan does not sound too incongruous.
The plan is to perform the yagna by lighting 108 ceremonial fires from March 18 to 25. The organiser also wants to bring soil from Doklam, where Indian and Chinese troops were locked in a 10-week standoff, and Poonch on the Line of Control to build a temporary Vedic village on the ground outside Red Fort.
Girri, closely associated with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar of the Art of Living, said President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been invited to the yagna. BJP insiders said the President and the Prime Minister were unlikely to attend the event.
Girri claimed that many political leaders, spiritual gurus, celebrities, bureaucrats and corporate stalwarts would attend the event.
"The Rashtra Raksha Mahayagya is an endeavour to evoke devotion to the nation and create a heightened sense of pride in being an Indian through our age-old tradition of the yagna," Girri said.
Ahead of the event, Girri said, a "ghee rath yatra" will be conducted to collect clarified butter from all the states, to be used as offerings during the yagna.
Asked why he chose the Red Fort, a Mughal-era monument, Girri said his event was a cultural initiative and not a political one. "Many cultural events, including Ram Lila, are held on the ground outside the Red Fort," he said.
The MP added that as he was organising the event in his personal capacity, he had not sought the permission of his party.
On Monday, Union minister of state for human resource development, Satyapal Singh, defended his statement on Darwin's theory.
He said at IIT Guwahati that evolutionists and Darwinists should come forward for a debate.
