Whenever we think of birthdays, cakes are usually the first thing that comes to our minds and why not? That’s how we have been celebrating them since we were kids. But, if you want to retain traditional values and not drift towards western culture, you might have to stop cutting cakes! We are not saying this, in fact it’s a suggestion given by Minister Giriraj Singh who urged Hindus to pledge not to cut cakes on birthdays and go to a temple and offer prayers instead. While going to temples is fine and something that most of us usually do but not cutting cakes is stretching the concept of tradition too far.

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Singh is the Minister of State for micro, small and medium enterprises. Reportedly, at a religious function in Aurangabad, Bihar, Singh said “I urge you all to take an oath not to cut a cake to celebrate birthdays, instead offer prayers in the temple to celebrate it. In Indian culture, there is no tradition to cut a cake.” “It is unfortunate that we are moving towards western culture despite the fact that our own culture is strong and old,” Singh further added. He further raised concerns over Indian culture vanishing from rural areas. He said, “These days children are addressing their mother as ‘mummy’ instead of ‘maa’ or ‘maiya’ and father as ‘papa’ instead of ‘babuji’ or ‘pitaji’.” In fact, he said that words like ‘maiya’ and ‘babuji’ have an emotional connection.  

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Adding to his controversial best, he said that Muslims in India are not a minority and thus shouldn’t be given that status. He further said that the Muslim population in the country stands at 21 crore and “there should be a debate over this issue in the country” to consider them a minority.   

Source: Hindustan Times