It was on expected lines. The takeaway from the Independence Day address by the prime minister: sab changa si. His government is in control and all is well. The country is relentlessly moving towards its goal of becoming ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 2047.
PM Narendra Modi’s address from the Red Fort on Saturday morning again turned out to be a laundry list of what has been achieved by his government and its vision for ‘Viksit Bharat’. For the few who may have expected a soul-stirring speech and a departure from ‘business as usual’, the address would have been disappointing. Instead, the prime minister strove to put up a brave face while claiming that all was well, that the rest of the world is looking up to India and that his government has navigated the challenges remarkably well.
The prime minister’s speech writers had clearly not read the evocative commentary penned by Rajya Sabha MP Prof. Manoj Kumar Jha. Even if they did, perhaps it was too late for them to change the speech. However, Jha reflected the sentiment of many citizens when he wrote in The Wire on the eve of Independence Day that ‘India does not need a speech that tells citizens everything is well. It needs one that acknowledges the country’s shortcomings, failures, wounds and challenges along with its progress’.
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