Government is literally playing with words!!

Recently a lot has been written about the Modi government. This Government believes in banning, it is spreading communalism, it makes more promises than delivery, and much more. Amidst all criticism and applaud for the new government, media and most people did not notice that this government is much more innovative than previous governments. What makes me think that this government is more innovative?

See the names given to government schemes, authorities and foreign plans. Names of all these are very innovatively formed.

NITI ayog: National Institution for Transforming India

This government body has replaced planning commission and it is a policy think-tank. See the abbreviation is cleverly put as NITI, which directly means policy.

MUDRA bank: Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency Bank. (Mudra = Currency)

From name itself, it is clear that it provides loans to micro-finance institutions at low rates. (It is government bank, so of course provides at lower rate)

AIM: Atal Innovation Mission

AIM will be an Innovation Promotion Platform involving academics, entrepreneurs, and researchers drawing upon national and international experiences to foster a culture of innovation, R&D in India.

AMRUT: Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Development

SETU: Self Employment and Talent Utilization Scheme

PRASAD: Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritually Augmentation Drive

HRIDAY: Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana

SATYAM: Science And Technology of Yoga And Meditation

Earlier government had JNNURM mission for urban development (Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission). You will surely have to remember this full form to get idea of what it is. But when government gives names to scheme such as AMRUT, we can clearly form an analogy to link it with urban development like safe drinking water for urban households will prove to be AMRUT for them or self-employment will be the bridge (SETU) for poor people to come out of poverty.

From PRASAD, we can confidently say that it is linked with pilgrimage.

From doing this, government is also promoting Sanskrit-Hindi words in everyday language use. Which is a good stimulus as our language is becoming more and more westernized. Many times we do not find Hindi equivalent words.

I will not say, it is promoting Sanskrit only. Safety operation in Yemen was named as ‘Operation Rahat’. (Rahat = Relief)

2 days back, Prime Minister Modi has announced $150 million BHARAT fund, aimed at creating and providing support to disruptive start-ups in impact areas.

BHARAT to stand for ‘Better Health, Agriculture, Renewables And Technologies’ Bharat Fund derives its name from the ancient and also official name of India. Many people do not know this but it is our country’s official name. Article 1(1) says, “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States”.

So, all criticism is at their place, but I liked the way that government (or bureaucrats?) is playing with words cleverly to make it look more attractive and even rural people can relate to it very easily.

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Racial discrimination in India? Really??

Yesterday, I read a news in Firstpost that –Union home minister Rajnath Singh was addressing to students on the eve of Teacher’s Day in Pune and a student from South Sudan complained about racial discrimination faced by him. He said, “Whenever we go out in public places, especially in some college campuses, people call us ‘Aye Kaalia or Blackie’.” 

I was not shocked to know about this, but it concerned me. Thousands of students, graduates from India are going to western countries daily for education and work. Thousands of laborers are going to Gulf countries, Europe, America to earn their meal. Many of them are already victim of this racial discrimination.

Many times Indian government shame these countries for not treating Indian citizens equally. We get frustrated when we hear the news like some doctor or engineer is killed out of racial discrimination. I will tell you one incident. Four months back, one of my friend got internship in Australia and when we came to know about this, we mocked him, “don’t get killed, we don’t want to hear your news from television.” 

Conversation like this happens in fun mode, still that shows the deep impression of those news in our mind. Racial discrimination in India is surely not that extreme. It is just limited up to mocking someone about their color. But why this also should happen?

This is the huge loss for India on economic basis. As tourism industry get affected by such news. Also students from foreign countries would not be enthusiastic to pursue their higher studies in India, if such news popping up very frequently. More than economic, it is also enormous loss for India on moral grounds. 

I can see, poisonous seeds of British colonial legacy germinated in here. We have to remove them completely. And this will not just happen by changing names of Bombay to Mumbai or Madras to Chennai, or changing names of Connaught and Curzon road to something else. We have to address this ‘obsession of paleness.’ (I will not use word fair here)

_Digvijay Patil. 

'People call us Kaalia': Foreign student questions Rajnath on racial discrimination 

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