The RSS is no doubt happy to learn that the last census recorded almost 50,000 people who claimed Sanskrit as their mother-tongue. Another man who should be delighted is Murli Manohar Joshi whose ... vision on education is capable of providing the public with not inconsiderable doses of comic relief. Joshi and his cohorts can now envisage a pristine regime of gurukuls where adequately sanitised Brahmin-types will impart the correct education in a hallowed language ...

The syllabus will no doubt draw on the rich content of the Vedas, which everybody knows is the repository of all wisdom. The marvels of science and technology that the Vedic age pioneered is well known. The first aircraft, submarines, formulae for nuclear power are all there. That was the pre-eminent reason why the West made its way to India - to shamelessly plagiarise the knowledge of the Vedic world.

It is also suspected that the discipline of economics was expounded faultlessly in one of the Vedas. Joshi could ask ... Yashwant Sinha to go ... back to the Vedas.

Diligent studies will enable Sinha to conjure away the budget deficit, arrest the slide of the rupee, solve the unemployment problem and, ultimately, eradicate poverty from the original land of milk and honey. That will be the first stage on the road to Ramrajya.

L.K. Advani can take a lesson or two from the Vedas in conjunction with the Arthashastra - even though the Chanakya label has been claimed by the man with the soft Hindutva pout. It would help if Joshi can prevail upon Prasar Bharati to increase the number of Sanskrit news bulletins on Doordarshan (to cope with) the growing currency of Sanskrit (in a) perfectly sensible strategy.