Netas’ alphabet soup
In the war of words between the crusaders against corruption and the Congress Party, one of the main weapons being deployed is the initial. Digvijay Singh, the most outspoken man from the party, has been hitting out at the A Team a lot. He has now trained his guns at spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravishankar, calling him the Plan C of the RSS. In turn, the BJP has termed Digvijay Singh as his party’s Plan D, whatever that means. Just count the sheer number of initials here.
The use of alphabets and initials is a particular favourite of Indian headline writers. How routinely do we see headlines such as CM dashes to meet PM? Initialled government ministries (MEA, MHA) and departments (DoT, DRDO) abound. Southern politicians too are known by their initials — MGR and NTR being the most famous. (The United States too had JFK and FDR, but they were exceptions.) Those who have several alphabets before their name must often have problems with form filling, since spelling them out can be troublesome.
But it is a fact of modern life that acronyms have taken over. FYI, ASAP, LOL — these are all now so commonly used that we have forgotten what they stand for. Digvijay Singh and the BJP spokesperson can also take inspiration from the X-Factor, the famous television show. The only way the rest of us, bored with the constant name calling between Singh and the A Team, can respond is by saying Zzzzzzz...
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