The Congress party has never lacked friends who can hurt it worse than foes. Actually, ‘hurt’ is a euphemism. What people like Sam Pitroda, Digvijay Singh and Mani Shankar Iyer manage to do effortlessly and repeatedly is nothing short of devastating damage with friendly fire. This time Sam has tried to wriggle out of a controversy of his own making by stating that his ‘Hindi is weak’ and what he said was not what he meant. Mani Shankar is as fluent in Hindi/Urdu as he is in English but he too fell flat on slippery slope of Hindi when used the word neech to run down the Prime Minister. But why blame him? Sonia Gandhi herself reads from ‘well’ prepared text in stilted manner, filmy dialogues that are difficult to handle in best of times.
Words like ‘maut ke saudagar’ or ‘khoon se range haath’ have provoked ripostes in colloquial Hindi that have left her and her Hindi coaches smirking and speechless. Poor Rajiv Gandhi has already been much vilified and abused in this election campaign that one doesn’t have the heart to remind readers of his gaffes in Hindi: ‘Nani yaad dila denge’. In fairness to the martyr, it must be pointed out that his competence in Hindi couldn’t have enabled him to spontaneously come out with ‘jab koi barha per girta hai to zameen hilti hai’! Surely, this was the handiwork of a copywriter who believed in taking poetic licence with facts. ‘Hua to hua.’ Rahul Gandhi is paying the price of having mentors who have unhealthy disdain for Indian languages—what our colonial masters branded as vernacular.
The English speaking urban elite continue to think that Indian languages—not only Hindi—are fit enough to address unlettered, uncouth servants and subordinates. Most unfortunately, the higher judiciary continues to shackle the litigants with fetters of a foreign tongue. English media that has minuscule reach compared to Indian language media lives in a make-believe world that its impact is greater than all others put together. The eminent columnists and celebrity commentators suffer from the delusion that their intervention can and does change the narrative. It is this English Gang that has divided different Indian languages to rule.
The prime minster too is not a Hindi speaker. Gujarati is his mother tongue. But he has taken trouble to master it enough to cast pied piper-like mesmerising spell on his audiences.He too trips playing with words that have sharp double edges. His compulsive weakness for rhyming, alliteration and forced bilingual acronyms ends up in tiresome jumlas. He may not have coined ‘Ramzada and *****zada’ but certainly condoned its indiscriminate use by motor mouth followers. The ‘Chowkidar’ metaphor was stretched to breaking point, and other melodramatic usage like ‘chhappan inch ka seena’ and ‘ghar main ghus ke maara/marenge’ boomeranged. To his credit, NaMo never sought refuge in Hindi, not being his first language. Where he floundered was when he flaunted his first name familiarity with foreign friends like Obama in native idiom: Uske sath to tu-tarak wali baatein hoti thi. Readers were at a loss to find an appropriate English equivalent for the intimate ‘tu’.
Be it words of endearment or sugar abuse, it is best to tread with caution when conversing in a language not fully under one’s command. There are instances though when the speaker chooses hard-hitting words to deliberately provoke adversaries. Mayawati did this with stunning effect when she raised the slogan, ‘Tilak, taraju aur talwar, inko maro jute chaar!’ No one was left in doubt what the words represented. Even in translation not much was lost. However, the words keep coming back to haunt Behenji as she now in changed circumstances strives to forge an anti-BJP coalition.
Let’s not make the mistake that playing with potentially explosive words is a malady of Hindi belt. None of the politicians is immune to the foot-in-mouth disease. Mamata ‘Didi’ is not averse to hurling abuses at opponents often crossing limits of civil discourse in public life. Parliamentary language, she believes, should remain confined to the hallowed precincts of the Parliament. Incidentally, the number of times a member’s words are expunged by the Speaker or the officer presiding in the house is increasing, devaluing the monitoring disciplinary mechanism.
Leaders of the Shiv Sena too in Maharashtra have never believed in restraint. Words that can reconcile or heal are eschewed; instead hatred is fuelled and passions enflamed for short-term electoral gains. The Election Commission has lost its credibility by taking a lenient view of transgressions of Model Code of Conduct. Warnings and censures have proved to be totally impotent. Courts overburden and no longer enjoying an entirely unblemished image are only bestirred when someone incurs their wrath by committing what the lordships interpret as gross contempt.
Why should it surprise us then that differences are settled by brute force in street fights by sticks, stones, daggers, bullets and bombs? Those who lack linguistic prowess can always resort to muscle power.
Pushpesh Pant
pushpeshpant@gmail.com
Former professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University