Country trapped in culture of No Action, Message Only (NAMO): Jairam Ramesh

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Jairam Ramesh today took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the country has been "trapped" in a culture of 'NAMO' or 'No Action, Message Only', ever since the BJP came to power at the Centre.

He was reacting in a jocular vein to Modi's usage of abbreviations like ABCD (Avoid, Bypass, Confuse, Delay) which the prime minister said should be replaced by 'ROAD' that stands for Responsibility, Ownership, Accountability, Discipline.

"The country is now trapped in 'NAMO' or 'No Action Message Only', Ramesh said.

Namo, denoting the first letters in the prime minister's name, was used extensively for sloganeering and campaigning by the BJP during the elections.

Reacting to the government taking the ordinance route to implement major laws like the one on land acquisition, the Congress leader said "now 'MODI' stands for 'Murder of Democratic India'."

Stressing on collective decision-making, Modi, at a day-long workshop on the 'Make in India' campaign yesterday had said that silos in government functioning have been demolished.

"Government is generally trapped in 'ABCD' culture from top to bottom.... A means Avoid, B-Bypass, C-Confuse, D-Delay. Our efforts is to move from this culture to 'ROAD' where R stands for Responsibility, O-Ownership, A-Accountability, D-Discipline. We are committed to moving towards this roadmap," he said.