Narendra Modi supports giving Bhojpuri official status

NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi will voice his support for inclusion of Bhojpuri in the eighth schedule of the Constitution in the last few days of his campaign in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

Inclusion of Bhojpuri in the eight schedule, which will accord it the status of an official state language and commit the government to promote its development, has been a long standing demand of the people of the area.

Senior BJP leaders told ET that an official status for Bhojpuri will be part of Modi's 'poorvanchal vision document' that will aim to address concerns of the people of eastern UP and Bihar.

Bhojpuri is spoken not just in the 27 districts in east Uttar Pradesh and Bihar but also 14 countries because of the large spread of Bhojpuri-speaking expatriates.

"The UPA government had to put the matter on hold since getting official language status would mean conducting UPSC exams in the medium and there is a paucity of language experts. The BJP, however, feels that these issues can be overcome," said a senior BJP leader closely associated with Modi's campaign.

The attempt to speak in the same language as his prospective voters is not the only thing that vision document has on offer.

"The area of east UP and Bihar is fertile, has heritage, history, culture and civilisation but the potential of the area has never been realised fully since it has been away from the mainstream of development and the grid of caste equations and long-held grudges have prevented any meaningful dialogue on these issues.

Politics here is still in the grip of bahubalis (local strongmen) who control everything from railway contracts to mining rights," he added.

The vision document or at least a series of announcements by Modi when he camps in the area for his fourday final campaign push will address some of these issues.

The cleaning of the Ganga and beautifying its ancient ghats (banks) will be a priority, as signalled by the fact that Virbhadra Nishad, a leader of the mallah (boatman) community of Varanasi was one the proposers of Modi's name in his nomination papers. Nishad has handed over his own vision of how the Ganga can be cleaned up and is said to be rather bitter about the experience of the past.

"The approach road to the Kashi Vishwananth temple and decongestion of traffic in the city of Varanasi is also part of the vision document, as is the international branding of Varanasi," said the leader.