Hindutva hypocrisy

"Yes, I am a South Indian, with Telugu as my so-called mother tongue. My father tongue, too, is the same. My parents could not read or write. I did not study in English-medium convent schools, neither of Christian or Hindu persuasion. I learnt English that I speak and write because of my passion to know the world, not just India. The pinnacle of my education was the Osmania University, which has a chequered history of Urdu, English and Telugu medium teaching. iven my family background, I could never even dream of British education like Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (Ferguson College and then Gray’s Inn, London) or Syama Prasad Mookerjee (Lincoln’s Inn). Nor could I study in St. John’s College, Agra, like Deen Dayal Upadhyaya. Both Deen Dayal and Syama Prasad graduated in English literature. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya even did his masters in English literature. The Hindutva school claims that he was the only leader from that school of thought who was a philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist and political activist. I feel I was deprived of good English as I could not, unlike L.K. Advani, study in St. Patrick’s School, Karachi.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, which was initially the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, was formed, nurtured and developed by Hindu (not Hindi) nationalists with the ideological inspiration and hard work of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Syama Prasad Mookerjee, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and, of course, Mr Advani. More than anybody else it was Mr Advani who built the BJP as it is today by deploying a language of hatred against Christians and Muslims. During his tenure as deputy Prime Minister and Union home minister, Graham Staines was burnt alive along with his two sons, aged 6 and 10, in 1999. Thereafter, several English teaching missionary schools were attacked and burnt down. But see where the BJP leaders studied. Were there no Hindi-medium schools and colleges when those leaders were studying? Why did they study in “un-Indian” schools and colleges whose medium of instruction was the colonial English language?
In his very first Parliament debate, Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to Mahatma Gandhi, Ram Manohar Lohia and Deen Dayal Upadhyaya as men who inspire him. Gandhi and Lohia studied abroad — England and Germany. Surely these people were what they were partly because of their modern education, mainly taught in English. So how does English become an anti-national language now?..."