Why Modi must address the nation as PM, not as politician
A year is a long time in politics. On Independence Day last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stepped on the podium on the ramparts of the Red Fort and triumphantly delivered his first-ever I-Day speech. Just a day earlier, he had wrapped up the first effective session of Parliament with an announcement that Lok Sabha worked for 104 per cent of the time available. The Rajya Sabha went a notch better by working for 106 per cent of the time available. This year Modi will walk up to the same podium a slightly worried man. Reason: the monsoon session of Parliament barely functioned and productivity of the Rajya Sabha was down to 9 per cent while Lok Sabha logged 48 per cent productivity and that too because it began functioning midway through the session.
Modi will no doubt rail against the Opposition for derailing the functioning of the Parliament. But in a country where elections are won or lost on the basis of work done and not policies, the ruling party has greater stakes in delivering on its promise. The Opposition's main objective is to obstruct the government in its efforts to return to the people and seek another term on the basis of its performance. It is thus necessary for the BJP to find ways to ensure the functioning of Parliament. The Congress reached its nadir in 2014 and it can only make a recovery while it is for Modi to demonstrate that he has more peaks to scale. He has to find means to prevent his downward slide.
Let there be no doubt, the epitaph of Moditva has been written in the monsoon session. Arun Jaitley's bravado may drown the BJP's "Holy Trinity" or "Trimurti" in self-delusion, but there is no denying that India missed the Goods and Services Tax (GST) deadline once again. It will be tempting for the BJP to blame the Congress and other Opposition parties but no party can go to the people complaining that the Opposition did not allow it to do its job. "Are you the government or what?" the people will naturally question. Modi knew last year that he did not have the required numbers in the Upper House and he needed to keep the Congress in good humour. He has now paid with his reforms package for depending too much on his cronies too deeply entrenched in Lutyens' Delhi who advised that belligerence against the Congress with break the party further.
Modi delivered his first I-Day speech with confidence stemming from a successful completion of legislative agenda in Parliament. This included securing parliamentary nod for Nripendra Mishra as his key aide, the amendment in Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Act to control ponzi operators and market manipulators, and enacting the law establishing the National Judicial Appointments Commission.
By August 15, 2014, he had also surprised the world by choosing Bhutan as his first destination outside India and made an impressive international debut at the BRICS Summit. The Cabinet okayed a special investigation team to recover black money and he directed his ministers to make their agendas for the first 100 days in office. Team Modi had taken just one step backwards: rolling back the increase in passenger fares and freight charges. But there was a sense of a man in charge and purpose in his stride.
It was in this backdrop that Modi delivered a speech that was heard by people in rapt silence. For the first time since becoming the prime minister, Modi gave reasons for those Indians who did not vote for him, to feel that they also could become partners in his efforts to develop India. He earned kudos by declaring himself as "Pradhan Sewak" and in the first half of his speech gave a pep talk to the Indians. He argued that people must look in societal terms and not be concerned solely about personal gains. Modi talked a bit like a meandering patriarch, yet people heard in rapt attention. He mentioned non-fashionable matters like improving the family value system to ensure that young men did not become rapists. "After all, a rapist is also someone's son," were Modi's famous words. His words resonated when he asked people to look inwards because he had a moral authority.
For several reasons this is shattered now. While recent factors may be open to debate, a quick listing of his promises last year reveals that much erosion of his popularity and influence is due to most announcements either remaining only so or being just partially achieved. Besides other issues, the biggest promises in his I-Day speech that were central to his development plank included:
1. Make in India ("Come, make in India, we have the strength, come to our country, I invite you.")
2. Job creation by promoting the manufacturing sector.
3. Protection of farmers ("They serve the country by filling the granaries in the same way as a soldier defends the motherland.")
4. Digital India ("Like railways once united India, IT will unite India.")
5. Ten year moratorium on casteism, communalism or sectarianism.
6. Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (officially launched on Gandhi Jayanti.)
To be fair to Modi, he successfully reinvented several of the UPA's programmes, including bank accounts for people, toilets in schools and villages and the MPs' scheme to adopt villages. This was Modi's core strength and he brought energy into implementing schemes that had lost momentum. But these are hardly issues that Modi will like to list in his I-Day speech, having already done so several times over.
Modi will seek to get a new bounce in his stride. Since he will address the nation so close to the washout of a Parliament session, Modi would be tempted to use the platform for his political re-launch. This will be a grave tragedy because it is less than 15 months since he became the prime minister. Converting the Red Fort into a venue of political grandstanding is a trap. People will not gather or tune into TV sets to listen to the BJP leader or the vote-catcher but to the prime minister. But will Modi be able to take the gamble and stick to the brief of the day?