In May, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sounded a clarion call for self reliance. India, he said, would strive to become "Aatma Nirbhar", even as the country stepped onto the road to recovery after two months of lockdown amid the novel coronavirus outbreak.
Since then, 'Aatma Nirbhar Bharat' had become the word of the month for Union Ministers, BJP leaders and citizens alike. It is used in every speech and press conference if possible, and has made its way to many an official Twitter post. It is perhaps odd then that the country's Home Minister should stumble through the word as though he'd never heard it before.
The Indian Youth Congress took to Facebook sharing a short video clip where Amit Shah trips up over the word, doggedly calling it "Aatma Bharat Nirman" until someone off camera offers up the right words.
The post makes optimum use of a Hera Pheri joke, inserting Paresh Rawal's dialogue where he urges the person "are muh se supari nikal ke baat kar re baba" right before cutting back to Shah and his eventual correct pronunciation of the phrase.
"Jinhen aatmanirbhar bolna bhi nahi aata, ye banaenge aatmanirbhar bhaarat?" the handle jibed.
This is not Shah's first strange gaffe. Speaking at the Times Now Summit earlier this year, Shah had said that the government was ready to take the economy to '5 million ton'.
"3 million ton ke base par, 5 million ton jane ke liye hum tayyar hai," he had said.
The word Aatma Nirbhar was first introduced by the Prime Minister as he announced that the government would be providing a total of Rs 20 lakh crore as a special economic package to help the country become self reliant.
"We will fight the virus by strictly following the guidelines. The way forward is a self-sustainable India. India's definition of self-reliance takes into account the needs of a globalised world," Modi had said.
