New Delhi: An RSS affiliate has a fresh plan for the Members of Parliament — learn and speak Sanskrit.
In its bid to promote the language, the Samskrita Bharati is set to organise a 15-day camp for MPs during the Winter Session of Parliament in the national capital.
According to the organisation, it has taken Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla’s consent to organise the workshop.
“We had a word with the Speaker and he has suggested making a daily one-hour training programme for MPs. We will speak to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi to work out the modalities,” said Dinesh Kamat, all-India convener, Samskrita Bharati.
“The number of days can be extended, but roughly we want 30-40 MPs to learn Sanskrit in the first batch.”
Kamat said the focus will be on spoken language. “We want MPs to speak Sanskrit fluently in daily conversation to promote this ancient language.”
The MPs will be trained by Samskrita Bharati teachers, who will also distribute two manuals to help the legislators learn and memorise the language.
The RSS-backed NGO to protect, develop and propagate the “Sanskritam language and its knowledge systems” has 4,500 centres across 19 countries, according to its website.
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The Sanskrit drive
The idea behind Samskrita Bharati’s training camp is to popularise the language among policymakers and, in turn, send a message to the people in general for mass learning of what was said to be the main language of governance in parts of ancient India.
Kaushal Kishore Tiwari, organising secretary, Samskrita Bharati, said, “Sanskrit is the language of yoga, Vedas, science, mathematics and astrology. But due to lack of promotion, our ancient knowledge doesn’t reach out to masses. We want elected MPs and legislators to become role models in promoting this language.”
After Samskrita Bharati’s push earlier in June, 47 BJP MPs, including Union minister Harsh Vardhan, Pratap Sarangi, Meenakshi Lekhi and Rajiv Pratap Rudy, took oath in Sanskrit in the new Lok Sabha. The RSS affiliate later honoured these MPs at an event.
Under Ramesh Nishank Pokhriyal, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has also pushed to establish two model Sanskrit-speaking villages.
Job-oriented courses
Samskrita Bharati also seeks the introduction of job-oriented courses at Sanskrit universities in the country.
“There is huge demand for yoga teachers, astrologers and teachers of Vedic maths. We want universities to introduce courses on the basis of employment opportunities. There is no point of running courses only to produce scholars without employment,” said a Samskrita Bharati functionary who didn’t wish to be named.
“We have intimated UGC and HRD Ministry to introduce courses on these lines to create employment.”
Samskrita Bharati has also suggested to the HRD ministry to include Sanskrit in the three-language formula under the New Education Policy, said the functionary.
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