Illustration/Uday Mohite

Nowhere in The Origin of Species does Charles Darwin say that the transition from one stage of evolution to another is instantaneous or predetermined. That hasn't stopped a member of independent India's dumbest Cabinet, Satyapal Singh, from advocating that Darwinism be thrown out of school textbooks. His reasoning is that no one — especially not our "venerated ancestors" — has seen an ape evolving into man. It has turned Mumbai's former police commissioner into the butt of numerous jokes on social media. One does wonder how such a neanderthal became the top cop and whether there are other such neanderthals in line. In defence of the police, no one has publicly uttered such nonsense: remember as commissioner Satyapal said that most suicides were committed by those who had studied in the English medium. What a cruel joke on the farmers who took this drastic step.