10 top suggestions on Twitter for Modi's August 15 speech (he asked for it)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has had an innovative idea - "crowd-sourcing his August 15 speech", which is due two weeks from now. As the PM seeks out suggestions online - the topics that India wants him to speak on to mark our 70th Independence Day from the ramparts of Red Fort, naturally advices are pouring in.
Twitter is abuzz with solicited suggestions from various concerned citizens, politcicians and public figures, though BJP's social media army is equally alert to combatting suggestions that there's anything at all that the PM must speak on and that he hasn't yet touched in his monthly radio address Mann Ki Baat.
First amd foremost, PM Modi's arch nemesis and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has instant suggestions, which, should Modi were to touch upon on his I-Day speech, would actually come after a prolonged and inexplicable silence from the latter's part. Kejriwal said in his tweet that the PM should speak on atrocities on Dalits, Kashmir, farmers suicides and dal prices in his forthcoming Independence Day speech.
Secondly, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah expressed his wish that Modi broke his silence on the many dead and wounded in the grieving Valley. Though it's been close to a month that the Hizbul militant Burhan Wani's death brought the tensed Valley to a boil, there has been deafening silence on the part of the Indian prime minister.
Actor and filmmaker Shirish Kunder echoed Kejriwal and Abdullah in his tweet.
Similarly, senior journalist Saba Naqvi said that apart from atrocities on Dalits and Muslims over cow politics, PM Modi should speak about the farmers suicides afflicting India's rural poor since the middle of 2015.
Senior jounalist Hartosh Singh Bal, while taking a dig at the PM's over-reliance on technology as the panacea for all of India's current problems, said that the PM was ignoring the present's non-digital problems for his futuristic technical utopia.
A Twitter user reminded PM Modi that despite his 2014 campaign selfies with the poor and downtrodden, he hasn't bothered assuring the poor that their grievances would be taken care of. Modi instead has been on frequent foreign visits, and courting the financial elites of the world.
Another Twitter user pointed out that PM Modi is quick to express condolences and sorrow over tragedies hitting distant countries, but he has not had a word on Mohammad Akhlaq's murder, or the fatal gang-rape of a Dalit girl, or the systematic brutalisation of lower castes in the country.
AAP leaders such as Ashutosh reminded PM Modi that the BJP-enabled social media army has been creating havoc online, but no action has been taken against them. Social media trolls have been sending arpe and death threats to many, including famous senior journalists as well as Congress women leaders, and even have waged a cyber-war against BJP Union minister Maneka Gandhi
Moreover, Ashutosh also called out PM Modi to not target the AAP MLAs on flimsy reasons, and he demanded an answer. Would PM Modi care to explain on his August 15 speech?
Senior journalist Mihir Sharma posted this line from Arun Shourie's talk at the "Journalism Talk" festival in Jaipur, which coincided with the concerns that the media has been outraging about for the past few days.
Shourie's warning that "democracy continues inspite of the governemnts" is a subtle reminder to the State that it's media's job to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Hence, those calling for meda witch-hunts and muzzling of voices are the real anti-nationals, and we wonder if PM Modi would clarify on this "pressing" matter.
Some pointed out the unbelievable sexism rampant in the BJP rank and file, this time in a speech by Union minister of culture, Mahesh Sharma.
The Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, back in his groove after the "Arhar Modi" jibe at the PM, took to Twitter to say how the RSS and of late even the defence minister have been misusing their office to trollbait actor Aamir Khan, unleashing their social media army on the Bollywood star and the online platform Snapdeal, all to "teach him a lesson". Rahul said "hate is the preserve of the coward", and it's clear who he meant by that strong term.
Finally, the CPM general secetary Sitaram Yechury rounded off the many allegations against BJP and its batallions of mobsters causing communal tensions all over India, but particularly in western UP and Gujarat. Yechury sounded a strong but sober note on the need for the "provocation from the top" to stop altogether.
As it's evident, suggestions have been flowing in. But the question is: will the prime minister pay any heed and will his 70th Independence Day speech will reflect it?