PM Modi's Independence Day speech: What worked, what didn't
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s fourth Independence Day address from the ramparts of the Red Fort on August 15 also turned out to be the shortest. At 57 minutes, it was also considerably shorter than the previous year’s speech that lasted more than an hour and a half.
It might also be the least impressive of his speeches if one were to grade his Independence Day speeches from 2014. In fact, it seemed more like a rehashed version of the election speech he delivered with such precision in poll-bound states at the beginning of this year.
While the prime minister announced and trumpeted schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojna, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Skill India, Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojna etc, in a 65-minute speech that was widely applauded as visionary in 2014, today's speech sounded like a presentation of the report card of his government’s achievements over the past three years.
He spoke of electrifying 14,000 villages, attaching of 800 crore worth benami properties after the amendment of the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act and streamlining of labour law filings.
He also rattled off his government’s achievements in establishing IITs, IIMs and IIITs and went on to speak about the Mudra Scheme for self-employment, OROP, GST, black money and even the “surgical strikes” from last year. The 29 crore bank accounts under the Jan-Dhan scheme and nine crore soil cards too found mention.
PM @narendramodi spoke about the vision for a 'New India' that would make our freedom fighters proud. pic.twitter.com/lMfn47NVbu
— PMO India (@PMOIndia) August 15, 2017
Still, unlike the previous years, there were no fresh announcements. He invoked the "Quit India Movement" and the "March to Independence" to draw a parallel between five years from now to 2022. With political opposition nowhere in his sight, he is likely to draw up plans till 2024 in the next year’s speech that should be a mixture of populism and foresight.
Having remained silent on the unfortunate deaths of children in Gorakhpur caused on account of gross negligence and poor governance, Modi mentioned it in passing shortly after his opening remarks.
However, clubbing it with natural disasters was deceptive even as the government machinery has been working overtime to disseminate propaganda trying to absolve the administration of blame.
The familiar template involving "vikas", corruption and hindutva nationalism was once in display and some of his signature rhetoric rounded up the speech.
Modi started off by wishing people a happy “Janmashtami” and remarked that from “Sudarshan Chakradhari Mohan” and “Charkhadhari Mohan”, India was celebrating both its cultural and historical heritage today.
He invoked the 75th anniversary of Quit India, 100th anniversary of the Champaran Movement and also Bal Gangadhar Tilak and the 125th anniversary of Ganesh Utsav.
The PM went on to speak of a "New India" and observed that the "chalta hai" attitude has to be replaced with a "badal sakta hai" attitude.
Though he spoke about India’s stature rising in the world and made references to Kashmir and separatists, he didn’t speak explicitly about Pakistan or China. It must be recalled here that India and China are currently involved in a tense border stand-off at Doklam and his silence on the matter really stood out.
In his typical style, he weighed in on the Kashmir situation by adding, “na gaali se, na goli se, sirf gale lagane se Kashmir ki samasya suljhegi”.
One of the huge issues facing our country today - joblessness - was almost sought to be outsourced through schemes like Mudra and the once-tall promise of creating one crore jobs every year for five years is unlikely to ever be repeated or recalled. But his other improbable claim of doubling farm incomes by 2022 found mention here.
He spoke of record crop production and referred to the 99 medium to large irrigation schemes under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sichai Yojna - originally announced in 2015 - that he claimed would be completed by 2019. (A fact-checking of this rather incredulous claim revealed that the scheme is moving at a snail’s pace due to lack of budget allocation and other bottlenecks.)
The prime minister spent a few minutes on demonetisation by enumerating the benefits accrued from it. More than Rs 3 trillion of cash that was outside the banking system had come back into the fold, he said. He also claimed that two-thirds of that money was under scrutiny. He said 1,75,000 shell companies were struck off the rolls following this exercise and more such front companies were under scrutiny.
The digitalisation mantra and a "less-cash economy" were also repeated.
There was also a token reference to casteism and communalism as he said violence in the name of faith was unacceptable. Triple talaq figured as well.
He ended the speech quite well by defining his determination to build an India where every poor man owns a house with access to electricity and water, and where farmers can sleep in peace and prosperity.
It is another matter whether this could indeed be a reality even in 2050.
The Opposition might dismiss Modi’s speech as dull, repetitive and monotonous, but they should better be aware that there is a huge constituency out there that follows the prime minister and take his words as gospel truth.
Despite this speech not being as impactful as the ones in the years preceding it, the effortless orator in Modi seized the moment yet again and clearly has no competition anywhere in sight.
Some people might recall that Modi had spoken in front of a replica of the Red Fort back in 2013. He is still displaying the same hunger, zeal and passion for the job as he used to back then. As Churchill once said, “Oratory is a skill that can turn a commoner into a king.”