A two-day party with a difference: Yoga, mud baths and lectures

JHINJHOLI (Haryana), June 6: Get a wake-up call at five in the morning with tea or coffee, yoga and health tips for 45 minutes, then it's ta...

JHINJHOLI (Haryana), June 6: Get a wake-up call at five in the morning with tea or coffee, yoga and health tips for 45 minutes, then it’s tarbooz time at 6.25 a.m. Indulge yourself in mud baths, steam baths, there’s a swimming pool to splash in. And detailed instructions: laughing thrice a day is good for the digestive system and the heart; keep an appointments diary, sleep with windows open.

The BJP’s two-day training camp for its first-time 51 MPs isn’t all work and no play. Along with “educative sessions” meant to fine-tune the mind, the sprawling campus loaned to the BJP by the Surya Foundation has all facilities that would do a resort proud.

Health-conscious BJP organisers have drawn up a minute-by-minute programme detailing activities for the day. And not without reason. Tarbooz time is early morning since watermelon, apparently, is good for the health only in the morning, journalists were informed.

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Sandwiched between the four training sessions each day are times for tea or sheetal peya (desicold drinks like sherbets or buttermilk), fruit chaat and nearly three hours in the afternoon for lunch and a nap. All meals are vegetarian. After dinner, the day ends with a glass of milk. Camp organiser and BJP general secretary K N Govindacharya says that the menu has been designed to keep the MPs in good health and humour.

After breakfast, there’s the flag-hoisting and Vande Mataram and then the serious work begins: lectures on important topics, informal interaction with senior leaders.

It is hoped that the camp will have a salutary effect on MPs even after it ends. Inaugurating the camp this morning, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee told them that the situation in Parliament (where the government is in a minority) required them to be alert and regularly attend the House. “Excuses of being sick will not be accepted if a whip has been issued. Each vote counts,” he said.

Union Ministers Som Pal, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Babagowda Patil are going through the camp. For many new entrants into theBJPlike actor Vinod Khanna and erstwhile royalty like Sanjay Singh and Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deothis is probably a glimpse of another world.

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The accommodation is spartan: MPs get non-AC dormitories and shower in communal bathrooms, eight at a time. But no one’s complaining.

“It’s not uncomfortable.” said one MP stoically, while another said that the experience was creating a welcome fellow-feeling. The dormitories were cool and pleasant, “and there are no mosquitoes”, said a new Rajya Sabha MP.

The organisers have gone through quite a bit of trouble to ensure that MPs don’t wilt in the summer heat. Fragrant khus chiks have been placed strategically all over the campus and air coolers are much in evidence.

The health tips include: sleep with windows open, drink one glass of water on waking up and drink more than five glasses of water a day but not during meals; laughing happily three times a day is good for digestion and for the heart. While water is like nectar, raw salads and fruit are verybeneficial.

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Besides, there are tips for effective functioning as an MP: keep a daily appointments diary, a telephone index and maintain an annual notes diary.

BJP President Kushabhau Thakre says the aim is to have a party with a difference. “We impart training to the MPs to be different in every aspect,” he said.

Nothing is for free. Every MP has paid a fee of Rs 200 and can make calls only through the STD booth on campusand pay for each call. The camp ends tomorrow evening.