The proof of the pudding is in the eating, the proverb goes. Though Narendra Modi began his career as a RSS Pracharak and carried the stigma post-Godhra riots in which thousands of minority community people were massacred, he was supported by people and elected as Prime Minister only on his development plank. Notwithstanding his government’s grandiose announcements, nothing concrete has been spelt so far which breaks from the past and move in a different direction towards more development. In fact, on the economic front the new government not only adopted the same policies pursued by the previous UPA government, which the ruling BJP had severely opposed then, but also went steps further like increasing the Foreign Direct Investment cap for investments in insurance sector, defence sector and in Railways.
On the contrary, what was generally more feared in returning the BJP to power at the Centre, was happening one after the other taking the polity and destiny of the nation in the reverse direction. The first such a step was the directive issued by the Home department to all departments at the Centre to give priority for the use of Hindi for communication in all social media networks which drew ire of most of the political parties.
Just hours after facing severe criticism from DMK President Kalaignar for issuing directives to use Hindi for official communications on social media, the Union government was forced to issue a clarification. Taking strong exception to government decision, Kalaignar said it was the beginning of “imposition of Hindi”.”Giving priority to Hindi will be construed as a first step towards attempt at creating differences among non-Hindi speaking people and making them second class citizens,”. Condemning the MHA’s order of priority to Hindi on official social media interactions, Kalaignar asked Prime Minister to focus on development agenda.
The Ministry of Home Affairs clarified its stand that stating that the directive was only for Hindi speaking States. The government also added that the directive is not imposing on non-Hindi speaking States. The government was brought in the dock after several political leaders had lambasted its directive. However, BJP ally Shiv Sena was vociferous in its Marathi approach backed Centre’s decision in its editorial ‘Saamana’, calling Hindi a ‘Rashtrabhasha’. “If Narendra Modi as the PM does not promote Hindi then who else will? PM in his first foreign visit to Bhutan spoke in Hindi,” read a portion of the article. But, BJP allies in Tamil Nadu opposed the directive. Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati said that the Centre should be equally enthusiastic about regional languages too. She said, “Encouraging use of Hindi language is good but our country has rich heritage of regional languages. That should be encouraged too.” The Communist Party of India (Marxist) said, “The decision of the Modi government to use only Hindi language as the sole medium of communication for government information on social media is against the principle of linguistic equality and is an injustice to other national languages. Government should modify its policy and use along with Hindi other national languages as well as English for communication in social media.”
While the Home Ministry argued that it never aimed at promoting Hindi at the cost of other languages, BJP spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi stoked a controversy when he said that the Hindi speakers were considered illiterate and the English speaking a part of the elite class.
Even as the controversy over Hindu subsided, the Union Human Resources Ministry directed that CBSC schools celebrate Sanskrit Week from August 7 to 13. The BJP’s cultural agenda was proving to be too bitter a pill for even BJP allies like MDMK and PMK. The CBSE directive wrongly hailed Sanskrit as the “mother” of all languages and the move was seen as a conspiracy to “plant poisonous seeds” in the hearts of students who belong to diverse backgrounds. While Hindutva votaries may look at Sanskrit as the origin of all Indian languages and therefore worthy of promotion and celebration, most parties in the Tamil Nadu emphasize Tamil’s separate identity and ancient history.
Linguists pointed out that the directive was such that it also applied to provinces which knew nothing about Sanskrit. It is to be noted that the CBSE is determined to teach Sanskrit. It has been registered that Sanskrit is the root of Indian culture and a granary of Indian wisdom. The circular mandated that competitions like essay competitions to popularise Sanskrit should be conducted for creating awareness about the language among students. During the previous NDA regime, the then Human Resources Minister Murli Manohar Joshi issued the same order in order to register in the minds of students that Sanskrit was the mother of all Indian languages. The present move was the repetition of the 2001 attempt, linguists said.
Taking strong exception to the Sanskrit Week celebrations planned by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in its schools, DMK President Kalaignar on July 21 asked the Centre to confine the proposal to Hindi-speaking States only. “We have never accepted the imposition of either Hindi or Sanskrit. Celebration of Sanskrit Week in CBSE schools in TN is not acceptable,” Kalaignar said. Urging the Modi Government to give up fundamentalism like Saraswati and Sanskrit and as promised during elections to focus on livelihood issues of people and development, he said only such an approach would help avoid clash of ideas and contradictions.
But unlike in the issue of Hindi in social media, the Union government did not relent on Sanskrit and the CBSC schools in the State also had conducted the Sanskrit Week.
In the meanwhile, the BJP led government stuck to the party’s communal stand on the mythical Ramar bridge and declared that it would not be broken for executing the Sethusamudram project.
The government on August 14 said it remained firm on its decision to protect the ‘Ram Setu,’ but it would offer a suggestion to the Supreme Court on the proposed Sethusamudram shipping canal project which would be “acceptable to all.”
Union Minister for Shipping Nitin Gadkari told the Lok Sabha during Question Hour that the ‘Ram Setu’ would “not be broken” by the government. The Minister said the issue was sub judice and the government had certain “alternatives,” which it would submit to the Supreme Court. The government was hopeful of finding a solution to the multi-crore Sethusamudram project, which has been hanging fire after Hindu groups protested against the United Progressive Alliance government’s move to dismantle the structure that is considered a bridge built by Lord Rama.
He said it is the stand of the NDA government that the ‘Ram Sethu’, as the structure is known, will not be broken. Geological theories differ from religious belief behind the origin of the bridge. It was the site of the proposed Sethusamudram shipping canal project for dredging the entire straits to make it navigable by large ships and create fishing and shipping harbours in the coastal areas as ships bound for India’s eastern coast have to circle around the entire island of Sri Lanka to reach Tuticorin, Chennai, Vizag, Paradip and other ports.
The BJP government has reiterated its determination to hunt for the mythical river ‘Saraswati’. Union Minister Uma Bharti claims that Saraswati not a myth and has started hunt for the mythical river. The BJP government has launched a fresh effort to unravel the ancient riddle about the existence of river Saraswati which finds reference in ‘Vedic’ texts.
Though efforts have been made in the past by geologists and the scientific community, both during British period as well as in independent India, the river remains a mystery so much so that its mention in ancient texts has invariably been termed ‘mythological’.
“There is enough scientific evidence on the presence of the river Saraswati in some parts of the country through which it flowed about five to six thousand years ago...Saraswati is not a myth”, claimed the Union Water Resources and River Development Minister Uma Bharti on Aug 12. Responding to a calling attention motion in Lok Sabha, Bharti said her government was taking up the issue very seriously “to trace the route of the river”. She also informed the Lok Sabha that the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) of her Ministry has been directed “to test the water of a well located inside the Allahabad fort” in order to trace the source and route of the ‘lost river’. The motion was moved in the House by BJP member Ratan Lal Kataria who wanted the government to set up ‘Saraswati Research Institute’ for the “revival” of the river. He reminded the House of a promise made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who, he claimed, during an election campaign in Kurkshetra vowed to bring to the surface the water of the subterranean river Saraswati. Stating that a lot of research has been done on the river, particularly in Gujarat, Bharti said there were several rivers named Saraswati which emanated from the Himalayas, including one which mingled with the Triveni in Allahabad, another with Mandakini and the third with Alaknanda river. She said there was also a river with the same name that passed through Haryana to Rajasthan and Gujarat.
Raising his demand, Kataria claimed that the river was a symbol of India’s cultural heritage and completes the narrative of the Harappa and Mohenjodaro civilization which grew up by its banks and by the banks of the other historic river Indus. He said drilling of deep wells in parts of Gujarat had shown the existence of sweet water, which proved the existence of water flow.
Maintaining that research work on the river would also act as a search for lost civilizations and habitations, Kataria demanded the establishment of an authority to carry on the research.
With Narendra Modi government seeking to trace the ‘lost’ river Saraswati which finds reference in the country’s ‘Vedic’ texts, a group of scientists from Regional Remote Sensing Center, (RRSC) on Aug 14 gave a detailed presentation to the Minister Uma Bharti on the existence of the “extinct” river.
Scientists from the RRSC of the department of science are learnt to have narrated all the possible reasons that might have led to the extinction of the river which may be as old as 28,000 years.
As the course of the river and reasons for its disappearance has been debated for a long time, Bharti suggested the scientists form a core group of research scholars and archaeologists to carry out an integrated study to find out all the facts behind the river.
The first major effort to trace and revive the extinct river had been initiated during the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s rule in 2002. Though the UPA-I government had continued the search for a couple of months, the entire project to find out the truth behind the ‘Saraswati was junked with the conclusion that the river’s references in the historical texts were more ‘mythological’ in nature.
The UPA government had then in December, 2004 even informed the Parliament that there was no official evidence of any location of the river despite prolonged research.
The Union Water Resources Minister has quite a lot of pressing issues like river water sharing disputes between many States which needed her full time attention for resolution at the earliest. So dealing with such mythological and regressive issues would amount to luxury for a regime which came to power on the slogan of change and development! r
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