Opinion The 3As

It’s catching. Narendra Modi started it when he said India had 3Ds and 5Ts but needed P2G2 (pro-people, good governance). Then they started multiplying faster than e-coli and soon audiences were slipping on an acronym soup of 3Ss, 3Ps, 3AKs (AK-47, A.K. Antony, Arvind Kejriwal) and the 5F formula. Now it’s spread outside the BJP. At a party briefing on Wednesday, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi was determined to match Modi, 3D for 3D. The BJP’s tactics in Parliament, he said, were meant to “divert attention, to digress and to depart from real issues” and that it aimed towards the 3Cs (“to confuse, to confound and to create chaos”).

Of course, the jugalbandi of catch phrases is not new to politics. In 1965, Lal Bahadur Shastri pitched “Jai jawan, jai kisan”. In 1998, post-Pokhran, Atal Bihari Vajpayee took it up and added a twist — “Jai jawan, jai kisan, jai vigyan”. But it hasn’t always been friendly tribute. “Garibi hatao” may have won Indira Gandhi the general elections of 1971, but it came back to haunt in 1977, when Jayaprakash Narayan told voters, “Indira hatao, desh bachao”. The Lok Sabha elections this year saw Modi turn the Congress’s “chaiwallah” taunt into a campaign strategy.

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After the AAP stole the aam aadmi from “Congress ka haath, aam aadmi ke saath”, the Congress seems to be feeling bereft. Its Lok Sabha campaign offering of “Main nahi, hum” failed to convince and since the elections, it has chosen to maintain an eloquent silence. So it’s good news that the party has finally woken up and is shopping around for a new political language. But could it move beyond awkward alliterative acronyms, please? These 3As are not likely to cut any ice with audiences, adversaries or auditors.