In a bid to check the rising number of crimes against women, Chilkur Balaji temple priest CS Ranga Rajan has started a new challenge – the raksha bandhan challenge, where men can choose their own ‘sister’ and women can choose a ‘brother’.

This, according to him, will lead to a fall in the number of crimes against women.

This initiative will reduce the ‘negative instincts’ among both male and female, said Ranga Rajan.

“There has been a spurt of incidents where men, who were rejected, attacked women with acid or killed them. This is the present state of the country. Today, we are accepting strangers as Valentines. This country doesn’t need Valentines…It needs good brother and sisters,” Ranga Ranjan added.

According to him, children are refusing to say the line in the Indian pledge which says “All Indians are my brothers and sisters.”

“We want the boyfriend and girlfriend trend to go away. It’s fine that they want to spread love, but what are the aftereffects of it? Girls are being attacked for rejecting these men,” he said.

“The intent of the initiative is to revive the freedom girls once had and respecting our own decision-making capacity,” he added.

The priest said that he hoped the initiative catches the youths’ imagination. “The programme has already begun in our temple. We asked devotees if they accepted complete strangers as brothers and sisters; many came forward and the girls tied rachis for the men.”

This isn’t the first time Ranga Rajan has protested about ‘Western culture’. Last year, he courted controversy when he said he’d punish any devotee by making them do sit-ups if they wished him ‘Happy New Year’. Instead, he asked his devotees to observe Ugadi.

Most recently, he was in the news for performing ‘Muni Seva Vahana’ – a 2,700 old Hindu ritual, according to him. As per the ritual, he carried a 25-year-old Dalit into the sanctum of the temple to propagate equality and end casteism.