‘Venkaiahism attains epic proportions’: Twitter gets creative after Shinzo Abe’s Jai Japan, Jai India

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is on a two-day visit to Narendra Modi’s home state Gujarat.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday coined a new phrase ‘Jai Japan, Jai India’ to showcase the strengthening relationship between India and Japan following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s fondness for acronyms.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the ceremony for high speed rail project in Ahmedabad. (AP)

“If we combine ‘Ja’ from ‘Japan’ and ‘I’ from India, the word we get is ‘JAI’. If we work together, nothing is impossible. PM Modi and I will work towards realising Jai Japan, Jai India,” Abe said after laying the foundation stone for India’s first bullet train between Ahmedabad and Mumbai at the Sabarmati athletic ground.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe during their inspection of a bullet train manufacturing plant in Kobe, Hyogo prefecture,Japan, November 2016.

Abe is on a two-day visit to Modi’s home state Gujarat.

And Twitter users could not help themselves as they unleashed their creativity and came up with a host of other phrases.

They also brought up M Venkaiah Naidu, who after defeating the opposition’s nominee Gopalkrishna Gandhi in August said India stands for ‘Integrated National Development Impacting All Indians’. He is also credited with coining the acronym MODI - Making Of Developed India.

Japan will loan Rs 88,000 crore to fund the ambitious Rs 1,10,000-crore project expected to be completed by 2022. This loan has to be repaid in 50 years, with 15 years grace period.

“We are building India’s first bullet train practically free,” Modi said.

Critics, however, say the funds for the bullet train project could have been better utilised to revamp the ailing Indian Railways, which has witnessed various setbacks in the form of derailments and accidents in the past.