There is cronyism and then there is acronymism. If we accuse past governments of excelling in the former, the present government gets an A++ in the latter. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has mastered the art of making creative acronyms. He has come up with some of the pithiest and wittiest acronyms of all times. There is no Opposition leader who has been spared the assault of Modi’s witty acronyms. For Arvind Kejriwal there is AK-49 (in line with assault rifle AK 47), referring to Delhi chief minister’s 49-day stint in government. Then there is the one targeting the Gandhi family – RSVP which stands for Rahul, Sonia, Vadra, Priyanka. Then another one targeting Akhilesh Yadav and his coming together with Congress before the UP elections, combined with Mayawati’s opposition to him – SCAM that stands for Samajwadi Party, Akhilesh Yadav, Congress and Mayawati.
Now, it seems Modi’s ministers have also taken to using acronyms with equal sincerity. Just a couple of days back, when Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu was delivering a talk at Delhi’s Shri Ram College of Commerce business conclave, he elaborated what the acronym — YOUNG stood for. For all those who thought it was just a word and opposite of old, welcome to Naidu sir’s explanation. He told the young crowd that YOUNG stands for You Owe U and Nation Greatness.
We are sure the students sitting in the crowd would have looked up if NAIDU, stood for New Acronym Invention Department and its Usage.
Now, Home Minister Rajnath Singh is giving some serious competition to Naidu and Modi’s skillful use of acronyms. In the aftermath of the killing of 25 CRPF jawans in Sukma Maoist attack, government has been reviewing its policy of combating red terror. On Monday, Rajnath Singh, announced the government’s new policy. The solution, as tweeted out by Home Ministry’s Twitter handle is an acronym – S.A.M.A.D.H.A.N – the Hindi meaning of the word ‘solution’. The acronym stands for
S – Smart Leadership
A – Aggressive strategy
M – Motivation and Training
D – Dashboard based KPIs (Key performance Indicators)
H – Harness technology
A- Action plan for each theater
N No access to financing.
The Home Minister called these the eight pillars of fighting left-wing extremism.
HM Shri @rajnathsingh unveils the multipronged approach for #NaxalSAMADHAN pic.twitter.com/zuXkaXxLTr
— HMO India (@HMOIndia) May 8, 2017
The acronym didn’t go down very well with the Twitterati, though.
Many questioned.
@HMOIndia @rajnathsingh Is it approved by acronym minister #venkaiahnaidu?
— Santosh (@santoshetti) May 8, 2017
Though, some gave full marks for creativity:
@HMOIndia @rajnathsingh Giving tough competition to @VenkronymNaidu …
— Amod_Tamaskar (@amodtamaskar) May 8, 2017
Some came up with their own acronyms
@HMOIndia @DeepaMazumder @rajnathsingh This is ridiculous. HM thinks the citizens are morons. Samadhan like
Showmanship After Maoists Attacks, Doing High-decibel Aggressive Ninda— Debasis ROY
Others resorted to ‘kadi ninda’
@HMOIndia @rajnathsingh This is worse than kadi ninda
@HMOIndia @rajnathsingh no mention of finding the root cause of naxal problem. KPIs can not solve by making Power point presentations
— Ajith Mathew (@ajithm69) May 8, 2017
