Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Narendra Modi’s speech on 15 August, on the 70th anniversary of India’s independence from colonial rule, was its duration. India’s Prime Minister had apparently heard that his speeches tended to drag. So he restricted his talk-time to a mere 57 minutes.
This is well under the all-time record for the longest Independence Day speech – 96 minutes. This record was set by Modi on the same day last year, from the ramparts of the Red Fort.
That apart, there was little in the speech that will stay in collective memory. But Modi need not worry: the lack of recall-value has been the trademark of most Independence Day exhortations by various prime ministers of India.
The only such address to pass the test of longevity was Jawaharlal Nehru’s speech in the Constituent assembly on the midnight of 14-15 August 1947. This began with the stirring words, “Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge…”
Breaks Silence Over Gorakhpur Deaths
The Economist, a generally conservative magazine, recently said, “India’s prime minister is not as much of a reformer as he seems, he is more of a nationalist firebrand.” It said the recently introduced GST was the brainchild of the previous UPA regime, and the form in which it had been introduced added to confusion rather than simplifying things.
It also pointed to Modi’s studied silences about major atrocities perpetrated in India in the name of nationalism, and poor governance. The magazine cited the deaths of 70 infants in an Uttar Pradesh hospital this month as a glaring example of the latter.
Modi finally broke his maun-vrata, or vow of silence, over the Gorakhpur deaths.
In the last few days, some of our innocent children died in a hospital. All the countrymen must stand together at this time.Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Modi forgot to mention that Gorakhpur is the seat of Yogi Adityanath, handpicked by him as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. It is unclear what will be achieved if “all Indians stand together.”
A Vision for a ‘New India’ by 2022
Modi is fond of coining catchy slogans. By 2022, the 75th anniversary of Independence, he would like to see India replaced by a ‘New India,’ free of graft, casteism, communalism, terrorism and that is healthy and self-determined. Who could disagree?
This month, in 1942, the Congress under Gandhi started the Quit India movement. Modi referred to that and to Gandhi, saying the British left India within five years “because of our unity.” What unity? Modi glossed over the fact that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), parent of the BJP, and the Hindu Mahasabha steered well clear of the 1942 movement.
MS Golwalkar, then the head of the RSS, exhorted his cadres to hold themselves back from the movement, so as not to attract the wrath of the British, avoid voluntary imprisonment and so on. The Mahasabha collaborated actively with the British against Gandhi and the Congress.
Absurd Claims on GST and Demonetisation
But Modi’s most absurd claims pertained to the implementation of the goods and services tax (GST) and demonetisation. He claimed both were huge successes, contrary to evidence.
The GST proposed by the UPA was to have a single, or at most three rates of indirect taxes at the state and Centre. The version implemented now, has six different rates ranging from zero to 28%. The categorisation of what goes under what tax rate is a mystery for India’s brightest tax consultants.
Indeed, finance minister Arun Jaitley was asked in Parliament whether Kit-Kat, Nestle’s popular confection, was a biscuit or a chocolate: under GST, these attract different rates of tax. Kit Kat comprises of a biscuit core covered with chocolate. This is only one example of the confusion that dogs the new tax regime.
Modi insisted that demonetisation sucked out all the black money from the system. Yet, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cannot tell us how much ‘kala dhan’ actually surfaced.
He forgot to mention that the measure has dragged India’s fourth quarter growth down to 6.1%; growth in financial and other services, and real estate are at multi-year lows and construction has shrunk.
Private investment and growth has stalled, with businesses fearing a return to the draconian ‘tax inspector raj’ that prevailed nearly half a century ago; banks are scared to lend fearing a backlash from the government.
On 15 August, Modi did nothing to relieve these fears: his references to tax extraction, ‘black money’ and ‘shell companies’ could drive business confidence lower than even what they are now. That, ironically, might add some frightening recall value to his speech.
(The writer is a Delhi-based senior journalist. He can be reached @AbheekBarman. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)
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