BJP in Catch-22 situation!

Recent developments in the main opposition party, the BJP could not be wished away as incidental or unrelated or not germane. Known for their scheming, there seems to be a systematic electoral strategy that the party is working on in tandem with their mother organisation the RSS. Having lost in two successive general elections under the banner of National Democratic Alliance putting their communal agenda on the backburner, the Hindutva forces seem to have lost hopes of success in repeating the same tactics of using secular mask for the time being.
The projection of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the dreaded face of Hindutva notwithstanding all their talk of development plank, as their Prime Ministerial candidate even at the risk of losing their time-tested ally Janata Dal (United) in Bihar, was the first sign of the party moving on the path of “consolidation of Hindu votes”, particularly in Northern States and unveiling a programme of “majority appeasement”.
Amit Shah, Narendra Modi’s point man in Uttar Pradesh, on July 6 raked up the issue of Ram temple, saying the party would soon build a grand temple in Ayodhya. “I came here to pray to Ram Lalla. I wish we will soon build a grand temple for Lord Ram here and restore Lord Ram to his rightful place,” he told reporters in Ayodhya before attending a meeting with party workers from the Awadh region.
Shah’s comment comes amid growing speculation that the BJP might look to invoke Hindutava in the State, where it made reasonable gains during the heydays of the Ram janmabhoomi movement in the early 1990s. The observation gains further prominence with recent reports saying that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi could contest next year’s Lok Sabha election from Varanasi, an important city for Hindus. Shah, a former Home Minister of Gujarat and close aide of Modi, said he “prayed to Ram Lalla for good governance in the country and making it free of the Congress.” Shah, who is also the party’s general secretary, held a meeting with party workers at Karsewakpuram, where stones carved for the proposed grand temple are kept.
Last week, BJP chief Rajnath Singh stirred up a huge controversy with his comment that English has caused a great loss to India by eroding its cultural values and stymieing the growth of Sanskrit in the country. The comment was greeted with derision by intellectuals and political leaders..
Speaking at a function in New Delhi on July 18, Singh had said, “The English language has caused a great loss to the country. We are losing our language, our culture as there are hardly any people who speak Sanskrit now.” A television report showed Singh as saying: “We have started forgetting our religion and culture these days. There are only 14,000 people left in this country speaking in Sanskrit. Knowledge acquired out of English is not harmful but the Anglicization penetrated into the youth is dangerous.”
It took a while for the BJP chief’s remarks to circulate but the reaction would have left his party colleagues wincing as the all-around criticism comes just as the main Opposition is looking to project itself as committed to a modern social order and dynamic growth.  Singh’s views sounded like a throwback to when the BJP was often labeled a “Hindi, Hindu, Hindustan” party and not one that claims to have nurtured the IT revolution to its full potential during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s tenure as the Prime Minister.  Singh’s critics, ranging from I&B minister Manish Tewari, CPM leader Sitaram Yechury and Dalit ideologue Chandrabhan Prasad, were quick to point out that Singh had betrayed his medieval world-view while insisting that English has not wiped out “Indianness”.
For most Indians English is an additional skill apart from their mother tongues. Facility in English is seen to have allowed India to connect with the world and given it a critical share of the BPO and IT business which provides employment to more than 20 lakh people, Singh’s critics said. Tewari said, “I sometimes feel like laughing at our friends. On one side their vision document is outsourced to people who don’t speak any language other than English. Is this medievalism or hypocrisy?” Tewari pointed out that “This attempt to create a dispute over language or saying that one language is better or worse than another, doesn’t strengthen the country and is not expected from a responsible political party.”
CPM leader Sitaram Yechury criticized Singh saying the comments reflect the BJP chief’s preoccupation with Hindu revivalism. He said that just by learning a language, people don’t lose cultural roots or foundations. “For most Indians, English is an additional language, and it does not insulate or separate people from their identities,” he said. Knowing English will only help Indians to advance and develop further.
Dalit ideologue Chandrabhan Prasad also criticized Rajnath Singh, saying BJP was opposed to English language as it is at odds with modernity itself. “All things Indian by tradition, be it caste, be it social structure, political structure, have stopped India from growing into a modern society. If English is eliminating tradition, it is also eliminating a culture that is caste-driven,” he said.
“I am not surprised that BJP is upset. The party cannot succeed in a caste-neutral India. It is opposing English because of its opposition to modernity itself,” he said.
A day after BJP President Rajnath Singh’s English bashing, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on July 20 said it is an “illusion” that English is the only means of progress.
“This is an illusion that English is the only means of progress...this is not true,” Bhagwat said at an inaugural function of a school building in Delhi.
He said that the spread of English had “hurt Indian culture”.
“Earning money is not everything. Children should have sanskar (culture) and they should know relationship and love,” the RSS chief said.
Bhagwat came heavily on the prevailing education system which, he said, was not in the country’s interest.
‘The Times of India’ on July 20 commented : Anybody who thinks that the growth of English has been a bane for India is seriously out of touch with reality. In the era of globalization, it is one of the critical advantages India has vis-a-vis countries like China. Indeed, China has itself recognized this and is seeking to catch up in a hurry. In any case, to blame one language or culture for the sorry state of another language is to miss the point. There is no contradiction between the growth of English and the thriving of native cultures. English represents, for most Indians, the language of opportunity, while their mother tongues are often the language of expression. The BJP chief should see English as cause for celebration rather than mourning. But, when it comes to his home and children, BJP chief Rajnath Singh does not seem to have much of a problem with English or Western ways of life.  He had sent his younger son, Neeraj, to study abroad, and his daughter Anamika worked in the United States. While his criticism of the English language has not gone down well within the party, it was endorsed by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. Singh’s and Bhagwat’s remarks have upset the English-speaking media faces within the party. Fingers are now being pointed at Singh by his own party colleagues for maintaining two different faces.
BJP president Rajnath Singh’s elder son, Pankaj, who is in politics and likely to contest the 2014 elections, is also fluent in the English language.However, when contacted, Pankaj chose to reply in chaste Hindi to all questions asked in English. While admitting his younger brother had studied in UK, Pankaj Singh denied ‘proper knowledge’ about his father’s remarks on English.”Maine theek se dekha nahin (I have not seen it properly),” was his only reaction to his father’s severe criticism of English.
This sudden outburst by the party chief caught the BJP’s English-speaking media faces off guard. “There was no need for such a remark at this juncture,” an English-speaking BJP leader said. It was also pointed out that some of the other top BJP leaders’ children were sent to study abroad. Unlike the Congress, earlier there was an acute shortage of “English-speaking BJP leaders”, a senior party functionary said. However, over the years the party had brought in and promoted leaders who are equally fluent in Hindi and English. 
Some of the BJP’s top leaders, like  Arun Jaitley,  Ravi Shankar Prasad ,  Rajiv Pratap Rudy and  Varun Gandhi, are known for their command of both English and Hindi. Former BJP president M. Venkaiah Naidu and party spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman, however, are more comfortable in English. Other young faces, like the party’s national executive member, Siddharth Nath Singh, are among others who could be seen debating on television in both languages. There seem to be conflict of interests between the leaders, and between its core medieval ideology and the electoral necessity to sell a development agenda, the BJP appears to be in catch-22 situation.   r