The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Madhya Pradesh will organize a training camp and communication skills workshop for its ministers, MLAs and leaders at Bhopal in June to enhance their public speaking skills and provide training on what to say and what to avoid while delivering public speeches and statements.

The saffron party’s decision to hold such a workshop comes in the wake of at least four foot-in-mouth statements within a week by senior BJP leaders in connection with the recent India Pakistan armed conflict. However, according to party officials, such camps and workshops are routine in the party. They are being organized in Bhopal as the last such camp was held a few years ago.

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The series of faux pas by BJP leaders in MP began on Monday, 12 May, when State Tribal Affairs Minister Vijay Shah called Indian Army Colonel Sofiya Quereshi a ‘sister of terrorists’ during his speech at a public function at Mhow near Indore.

An FIR has been registered against Shah under stringent sections on the order of the MP High Court, which took suo motu cognizance of Shah’s derogatory statements.

On 16 May, MP Deputy Chief Minister Jagdish Devda said that the Indian Armed Forces and all soldiers are ‘natmastak’ (bowing down with their heads on their feet) at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s feet for giving a befitting reply to terrorists and Pakistan.

Devda made the remarks in his speech at a Civil Defence event at Jabalpur.

That was followed by BJP Lok Sabha Member from Mandla in MP, Faggan Singh Kulaste, who had an apparent slip of tongue and described terrorists as ‘our terrorists’ at a function in Dindori.

The latest embarrassment to the BJP came on Saturday, 17 May when its first-time MLA from the SC-reserved seat of Mangawan in the Rewa district Narendra Prajapati said the ceasefire between India and Pakistan came after the ‘UN’ ordered to do so.

“…….PM Modi would have finished off Pakistan, had we not got orders from the ‘UN’ to stop,” Prajapati said, and that too during the BJP’s victory signalling ‘Tiranga Yatra’ at Rewa.

The Union government continuously denied any foreign mediation or pressure in the ceasefire decision.

In the light of all such embarrassing statements, the BJP’s decision to hold a public speaking training camp at Bhopal is being seen in connection with the events. Party officials, however, say that this is a routine exercise.

According to MP BJP media cell head Ashish Agrawal, such communication workshops and public speaking camps are organised routinely. “This will be a routine training camp, which will focus on holistic details about the BJP’s history, ideologies, and policies. The communication skills and public speaking workshop will be a part of the camp,” he told The Statesman on Sunday.

He said one of the aims of the camp is to teach new MLAs and leaders about the party’s policies and ideologies, and also to train them in public communication skills.