Lucknow: Winds of change appears to be sweeping through Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh. Known for long as a party with mooring in caste politics and as an ardent champion of Hindi, the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh is adapting to changes.
In a first, the party has added a new chapter to its communication channel by reaching out to millennials using English as a medium. For the first time ever, the party's official mouthpiece -- Samajwadi Bulletin -- has a message in English from the party's National President, Akhilesh Yadav.
The message talks of reasons which prompted party brass to field young first-timers like Iqra Hasan, Priya Saroj and Pushpendra Saroj in the recently concluded 2024 Lok Sabha polls and is aimed at addressing a 'younger' audience cutting across state and national boundaries.
The message from Akhilesh endorses the belief that candidates' own capabilities to voice concerns of the people he or she represents, matter more than anything else. Iqra, Priya and Pushpendra have won from Kairana, Machhlishahr and Kaushambi, respectively, and by their education at the world's leading universities abroad and professional commitments, all three are fluent in English.
Apart from Akhilesh Yadav's message, the party's monthly mouthpiece has a chapter each, on the three newly-elected young parliamentarians, in English. The party spokesman says that Hindi will continue to remain the main and only language of communication within the party and its cadre and use of English will be limited to addressing those millennials who are more comfortable conversing in English.
"This is only a means to reach out to the people who ideate and think in English," said a senior party strategist. Interestingly ever since Akhilesh Yadav, who has secured his Master's degree in environmental engineering from the University of Sydney, took over the reins of the party in the run-up to the 2017 Assembly elections, he has chosen Hindi as his only means of communication.
There will hardly be a media interview in the archives where he can be seen and heard responding to the media queries in English even if the question is asked in English or even by a journalist from abroad.
Senior party strategists say the use of English, for now, will only be limited to a section of the party's communiques which will be directed towards an audience which prefers to read, speak and write English for any reason whatsoever. "For instance, people in Kerala and Karnataka will be more inclined to read our write-ups in English than those in the Hindi heartland," said the spokesman.
