Chief minister Narendra Modi, in perhaps his first climbdown, has revoked the decision to make English compulsory from the first standard in government schools. Sangh parivar subsidiary, the Vidya Bharati, which runs some 400 schools in Gujarat, had run a campaign against the move, joining the battery of parivar organisations already up in arms against Modi. But even in revoking the decision, Modi can’t seem to escape. The official line is that the government had accepted Vidya Bharati’s plea of making English "optional". But Vidya Bharati’s Harshad Shah says that no such plea was made at his meeting with Modi and education minister Anandi Patel since they were against the very idea of English in schools. Shah says the anti-English campaign will continue. Back to square one?