I-Day speech: PM Modi's real message was written all over his attire - saffron, white and indigo
The message, in the end, was in what the Prime Minister was wearing — the saffron in the headgear, the white kurta pyjama. For those who still didn't get it, the indigo blue colour of the chakra placed at the centre of our Tiranga was reflected in the fine lines of the stole around his neck. There was only one colour from the Tricolour that was missing.
As the BJP gears up for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Prime Minister is making the party's strategy clear. No more waffling about 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas'. In 2014, the saffron and green were clearly visible in his 'Saurashtra' headgear. The colour scheme was followed in the following years with orange and green, or a Leheriya mustard, green and red, but not anymore.
The BJP has been a party of Hindu majoritarianism and that's all that matters. This India Today #SpeechAnalytica live analysis of PM Modi's Red Fort Speech throws up a lot about what was left unsaid and what the PM really meant.
While the BJP may not seem too keen to acknowledge the Muslim sentiments, going by the PM's gear, but the party definitely has a plan to "tap" the minority vote. The PM was paying more than just lip service to the community when he spoke about the party's commitment to the Triple Talaq Bill.
That is a clever strategy to drive a gender wedge within the community. The BJP may not be able to win the men over, but triple talaq is a sore point with Muslim women, something that works to the advantage of the party. Even at a recent rally in Uttar Pradesh's Azamgarh, Modi mocked the Congress for being a party of Muslim men.
'Hum tod rahe hain zanjeerain, hum badal rahe hain tasveerain'
The Prime Minister's 80-minute speech today was his last before he seeks a fresh mandate in 2019. What figured mainly were some announcements, some glossing over and plenty of reiteration of government's achievements.
मैं बेसब्र हूं... pic.twitter.com/wWuiDAVDyx
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 15, 2018
1) Swachh Bharat in the 150th year of the Mahatma's birthday, Ayushman Bharat, Mudra loans, power for all. At least 19 of the 23 schemes are those launched by the UPA and rechristened by the BJP.
2) Ayushman Bharat, the ambitious Modicare health scheme, that will roll out in September and is expected to benefit half a billion people has been up and running for the past nearly 10 years. Called the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana, Modicare has drawn flak for the meagre Rs 2000 crore allocation against the required over Rs 50,000 crore.
3) The toilet for each home under the Swachh Bharat scheme has not fared too well either as per Parliament's 51st Standing Committee report on Rural Development. "Sanitation figures are on paper and don't match ground reality" and "some of the data should be deleted" as it appears to be untrue were some of the remarks by the panel.
4) And if the MSP for farmers had gone up by 50 per cent, why would the government tell the Supreme Court in 2015 that the Swaminathan panel formula was not possible to implement. The formula has been changed for the first time in 50 years to exclude cost of land, thus leading to a negligible hike in remuneration.
5) The Northeast was a thrust area and not just because the last village electrified was in Manipur. The claim of 100 per cent electrification of India may light up the BJP's election prospects in 2019, but government data clearly reveals that 94 per cent villages already had power by October 2013. Thus, about 36,000 villages have been electrified in the past four years.
6) The Ujjwala Yojana has had an impact, but does it amount to saving Rs 15,000 crore? A CAG report tabled in the monsoon session last year says the DBT scheme saved the exchequer Rs 2,000 crore. The rest was because international price of LPG fell to an all-time low.
What the Prime Minister forgot to mention is that last year in Gujarat alone, 35 per cent cylinders couldn't be refilled in BPL homes because the poor couldn't afford the luxury.
It's true that all plans are in place, but how much of it is directly benefitting the poor? Well, the statistics hide more than they reveal.