MP BJP to hold mobile-free training camp amid backlash over leaders’ controversial statements

A three-day training camp for Madhya Pradesh BJP ministers, MLAs, and Members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will be held from June 14 to 16 at the state’s picturesque hill station, Pachmarhi. Mobile phones will be prohibited inside the sessions of the camp.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah is scheduled to inaugurate the camp at around 3 p.m. on Saturday. Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is expected to attend the closing session. The camp is being organised in Narmadapuram district, formerly Hoshangabad.

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According to MP BJP Chief VD Sharma, participants will not be allowed to carry their mobile phones during the training sessions.

Sharma stated that it has become common practice to prohibit mobile phones at such events, explaining that it helps prevent disruptions during important sessions. However, participants will be free to use their phones outside the sessions.

Sources said the training camp will include workshops on public speaking and communication skills to enhance leaders’ ability to address the public effectively. The sessions aim to guide them on what to say and what to avoid during speeches and public interactions.

Ashish Agrawal, head of the MP BJP media cell, said such training camps and communication workshops are organised routinely.

“This will be a routine training camp, focusing on the BJP’s history, ideology, and policies. Communication and public speaking skills will also be part of the programme,” Agrawal said.

He added that one of the goals of the camp is to familiarise new MLAs and leaders with party policies and to train them in public communication.

Coincidentally, the ruling party’s decision to hold the camp comes roughly a month after several BJP leaders made controversial public statements following ‘Operation Sindoor’ — a military response to a terror attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists.

Madhya Pradesh Tribal Affairs Minister Vijay Shah is already facing an FIR, following MP High Court directions, and has been severely reprimanded by the Supreme Court for his speech in Mhow on May 12. In that speech, he made derogatory remarks aimed at Indian Army Colonel Sofiya Quereshi, referring to her as “a sister of terrorists.”

State Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Jagdish Devda added to the controversy on May 16 at an event in Jabalpur, where he claimed that the Indian Armed Forces and all soldiers were “natmastak” (bowing down) at the feet of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for giving a befitting response to the Pahalgam terror attack.

Shortly after, on May 17, BJP Lok Sabha Member Faggan Singh Kulaste from Mandla and MLA Narendra Prajapati from Mangawan (Rewa district) also made irresponsible comments at separate events.

Kulaste had a slip of the tongue and referred to the terrorists as “our terrorists.”

Meanwhile, first-time BJP MLA Narendra Prajapati, from the SC-reserved Mangawan constituency, claimed that the ceasefire between India and Pakistan happened because the “UN ordered India to do so.”

“…PM Modi would have finished off Pakistan, had we not received orders from the UN to stop,” Prajapati said during a speech in Rewa as part of the BJP’s ‘Tiranga Yatra’, held nationwide to celebrate India’s success in ‘Operation Sindoor’ and the subsequent conflict with Pakistan.