Wordplay in the fray
At its meeting of 26 parties on Tuesday, the opposition named its alliance for the 2024 general elections the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance — or INDIA. While each word has justification, the acronym suggests a case of reverse engineering for impact.
The message wasn’t lost on India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has been holding parallel talks to firm up the National Democratic Alliance it leads and must confront the prospect of an “INDIA versus NDA" portrayal of next year’s Lok Sabha contest. The irony is that clever acronyms have been a forte of the BJP government so far.
Whether it’s the UDAN scheme for wider air traffic or the PM Kisan programme for farmers, it has used these to good effect. Now that the opposition has taken a leaf out of that playbook, the party in power cannot complain about rival wordplay.
This brazen attempt by the new front to identify itself with the nation could plausibly be defended by its emphasis on inclusion (INDIA’s second I). Perhaps the BJP will disparage the idea or play up gaps between Hindi and Anglophone readings.
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