Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a very good orator. If nothing else, his oratory skills have to be applauded. Apart from a few sleeping ministers, most people at Red Fort were enraptured by a speech that showered blessings on India’s economic progress, and showcased a firm stand on dealings with Pakistan with regard to terrorism, Kashmir and Balochistan. But Narendra Modi is also an expert at using rhetoric to hide behind reality. This Independence Day speech had a lot of that. He started off listing schemes that have been started to help the common man. Modi cited breakthroughs in online medical applications, talked about progress in online payments to farmers for selling agricultural produce anywhere in the country, and also hinted at the fact that electrical infrastructure
and LED bulbs have made their way into some of the
farthest regions of India.
But Independence Day speeches are not just about the launching
of schemes, although thankfully
there was no mention of any new
ones, but also about how far the
country has come. In reality, there
has been economic progress, but
this country is in turmoil. Modi, in
the first few minutes of his speech,
alluded to the fact that there have
been no aspersions cast on his government,
as opposed to the governments
of yore. He couldn’t be more wrong. There is violence in
Kashmir and a lot of resentment towards the army for using
pellets. There is violence against Dalits and minorities across
the country. The prime minister did refer to this fact over a
week ago in another speech but on Independence Day, the
lack of freedom for some sections of society deserved a mention.
He did hint to the fact that we need better social unity,
but spent more time talking about the fact that irctc.co.in, the
website of the Indian Railways, can now sell around 15,000
tickets per day as opposed to 2000 in the past, and that there
were now more passports being issued to Indians than before.
Modi needs to realise that all is not well in India. Economic
progress cannot be the only measure of success in a country,
even though better economics is what this country needs more
than ever. What was the need of the hour was the mention of
intentions, not just accomplishments, the protection of citizens’
civil rights, not just the fact that houses in a village three
hours from Delhi now has power for a few hours a day. He exhibited
bravado when talking about terrorism but refrained
from saying the same about cow vigilantes.
Prime Minister Modi’s new slogan of ‘Reform, Perform and
Transform’ can be applied to many different things. But it
needs to be more social change than economic at the moment.
