After the much-hyped International Day of Yoga on June 21 that was packaged as a manifestation of India’s growing “soft power”, there are reports that the government plans official celebration of Raksha Bandhan on August 29, with RSS endorsement.
A Ministerial committee, which includes Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani and Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister Ananth Kumar, will supervise the government-sponsored Raksha Bandhan celebrations, sources said. The annual festival, in which brothers vow to protect their sisters, is one that has always found favour with the RSS. It is believed that celebrating Raksha Bandhan “is a way to protect Hindu culture and live the values enshrined in it”, as RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat recently phrased it.