Mocking 'secularists' in Germany: PM Modi's jibe on Sanskrit is classic BJP doublespeak

On many occasions, AB Vajpayee, considered to be the most statesmanly leader of the BJP, had been accused of doublespeak - speaking in two voices to harness two political constituencies.

One, the Hindutva forces  and the other, the broader political spectrum whose support his party needed for both staying in power as well as to get votes. For him, it was also a deft image management exercise which gained him the profile of a moderate although Congress leader Jaipal Reddy once accused him of “non-stop doublespeak in a manner most unbecoming of a Prime Minister”.

Many BJP leaders compulsively indulge in this craft because they straddle two worlds - that of Hindutva and a constitutional secular democracy. It’s an inherent contradiction of the BJP. Perhaps the only other party in India that has a similar intrinsic contradiction is the CPM, which talks of both democracy and revolution in the same breath.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s strange remarks on Sanskrit in Germany should be seen in this context. At a reception hosted by Indians in Berlin, he recalled that once upon a time, Germans used to broadcast a news bulletin in Sanskrit when India didn’t have one. His reference was perfectly justifiable to revoke a bonhomie of the past and glorify the respect Germany had for Sanskrit, or rather India.

But instead of stopping there, what he said subsequently was cheeky. “I must applaud the Germans, they had Sanskrit news bulletins…our country didn’t… because of secularism…India’s secularism is not so weak that it will be shaken just because of a language. One should have self-confidence. That should not be shaken.”

Secularism anti-Sanskrit or Sanskrit, anti-secular? Who said that, when?

He was obviously taking a jibe at “secularists” in India - that Sanskrit is opposed in India by people who believed in secularism or different religious beliefs, when even Germany had great respect for that language. But what he didn’t mention was this: when did secularists ever oppose a Sanskrit broadcast? Didn’t the All India Radio have a Sanskrit news bulletin at prime time? Didn’t Doordarshan have a Sanskrit bulletin? Did anybody oppose those broadcasts on religious grounds? Most probably the broadcasts were dropped because there were hardly any listeners.

Imposition of language had of course been opposed in India - of both Hindi and Sanskrit for political reasons. When the Congress tried to impose Hindi in Tamil Nadu, the state rose against it in unison that led to the consolidation of Dravidian politics. The Dravidian parties continue to oppose “vada mozhi” (norther languages) such as Hindi and Sanskrit. This is an expression of an ethnic and linguistic identity in a pluralistic society. Imposing a language that’s alien to one’s culture is against the idea of India. If people ever opposed Sanskrit, it was not because of “secularism” but because it offended their language-sensibilities.

In fact, it was ironical that Modi was praising Germany for its affection for Sanskrit after dropping German language from the Kendriya Vidyalaya (KV) schools run his government. A few months ago, the move raised resentment among KV students and parents because it denied them an opportunity to learn a foreign language that was quite useful for their future education and career. Germany is a new-found destination for Indian students seeking higher education, particularly in engineering and science, because it is cheap and is linked to liberal employment opportunities.

The obvious reason for dropping German from KVs was to promote Sanskrit although it was couched as a move to promote a three language policy - Hindi, English and Sanskrit or a modern Indian language. What was also overlooked while dropping German was that in the last six years, the number of students travelling to Germany for higher education had risen by 114 per cent.

In Berlin, Modi didn’t have an explanation for dropping German, which was promoted by the German run Goethe Institut in partnership with the KVs. The language was so popular in the KVs that in three years, about 50,000 students had begun learning it. Was Modi’s India low on ‘self-confidence’ that it decided to drop an useful language because it threatened Sanskrit?

Meanwhile, using an example of the past for taking a dig at “secularists” certainly exposes Modi’s continued doublespeak. Following a series of attacks on Christian institutions, at a function in Delhi he had said in February that his government would not allow any majority or minority group incite hatred against others. En route to Germany, he told a UNESCO meeting in Paris that he was committed to the rights and liberties of all Indians. But when gets an innocuous opportunity, he takes pot-shots at the “secularists”. In fact, this is a never-ending ploy of the BJP leaders to pander to their core constituency while appearing to be secular. LK Advani, once a thorough hardliner, went to Pakistan in 2005 and said that Mohammad Ali Jinnah was a secular man and the demolition of the Babri Masjid was the ‘saddest day of his life’.

Interestingly, the doublespeak transcends issues. Noted journalist N Ram had made this reference to Vajpayee’s skill in speaking in two voices in an editorial in Frontline in 1998. He wrote: “In a classical exercise in doublespeak, Vajpayee (in his India Today interview released on May 15) manages to appeal to two seemingly incompatible political constituencies. On the one had, he suggests to the Hindutva constituency that only the BJP, long committed to the bomb, has had the guts to do what only Indira Gandhi had once attempted, only to be stopped in her tracks, On the other hand, he acknowledges, with an eye to a broader political constituency, that every government and every Prime Minister of independent India had kept “India’s nuclear option open” and supported “India’s indigenous research and development in the nuclear field.” (Frontline, 5 June 1998)

So whether it’s the attack on minorities, nuclear bomb or even a language such as Sanskrit, the BJP has to speak in two voices. A forked tongue is perhaps one of its unshakable assets.