The principal interest in the President's Address at the joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament after a new government assumes office, is the possible indication(s) regarding immediate policy thrusts, and fresh initiatives of the regime which has been in harness for barely a couple of weeks.
This charm however did not exist for President Ram Nath Kovind's speech, because Modi 2.0 is a reincarnate of the previous regime.
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Pratibha Patil Then, Ram Nath Kovind Now
Such a situation is being repeated in India after exactly a decade. In June 2009, the then President Pratibha Singh Patil had spoken of the vision that the re-elected UPA government had for the nation.
Like now, when the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has returned to office with a more emphatic mandate, the then PM Manmohan Singh too had chartered the Congress to become the first party after 1991, to secure more than 200 seats on its own.
The dominance of the principal party in 2009 is also matched by the emphatic equation in favour of the BJP within the ruling coalition now.
Just as Patil's speech of that time was a reiteration of what UPA-I had achieved, and fresh promises that the Congress and its coalition partners made for the hustings, President Kovind's speech today was a rehashed text of all that’s been said over the past few months to make a case for Modi's second term.
In fact, in the course of the campaign, when the BJP manifesto was launched days before voters began voting in a phased manner, many had given up on reading the forty-odd page document because it appeared to be a cut and paste job from several of Modi's speeches.
Kovind’s Speech Appears To Be A Rewritten Version Of BJP’s Poll Manifesto
Because President Kovind cannot match either the prime minister's oratory or because his high office and the occasion imposes constraints of both time and style, his speech appeared to be a rewritten version of the BJP manifesto. The difference barely being in emphasis and tonality. Another important difference being that President Kovind could talk about what had already been done by ‘this government’.
For instance, the President had the privilege of saying that “for the first time, a government has taken note of the economic security of small shopkeepers in the very first meeting of the Cabinet” and “approved” a separate “pension scheme” for the small shopkeepers and retail traders. It is significant to recall that the BJP manifesto promised to expand the Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-dhan scheme to cover all small shopkeepers.
Or for instance, Kovind was given the privilege by Modi of being able to claim that “his” government had already decided to extend the coverage of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, the scheme which provides the assistance of Rs 6,000 every year to each farmer of the country, irrespective of the size of the land holding.
Kovind Reiterates ‘Importance’ Of ‘One Nation, One Poll’
On the political front too, the government has already made headway with its two-decade old project, ‘One Nation, One Poll’. The president, towards the end of his speech, added his bit in the effort towards unitarising the poll process. Stating that simultaneous elections was the need of the hour, Kovind urged all members of Parliament to “seriously ponder over this development-oriented proposal”.
In a brief intervention, the president pushed ahead the thesis that state elections held throughout the Centre’s tenure, or even when parliamentary polls are held shortly after those for some state assemblies, disrupt the nation’s path to development.
This in fact was not the first instance when Kovind had mentioned the BJP's plan as being essential for the country.
In his Republic Day Address in 2018, Kovind’s first after the election as president, he had touched upon the necessity of concurrent polls. Presidential speeches insulate the government from probing questions, but it is a matter of time before someone asks why the BJP did not advance the elections in Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Haryana where they are due this winter.
After all, the BJP is in power in all three, and did not have to depend on the mercy of other parties to advance the polls, to be held alongside the Lok Sabhs polls-
Kovind Echoes Modi’s ‘Sabka Vishwas’ Message
Leaving this aside, the remarkable consistency and doggedness when it come to the pursuit of ideas, concepts and programmes, is evident through the President's Address. From the time he assumed office in May 2014, Modi has always tried to convince people that little or nothing had been done in the country prior to him taking charge – that he had inherited a clean slate.
President Kovind made a not-too-small contribution in the making of this myth. He said, “My government is committed to that very idea of nation-building, the foundation for which was laid in 2014.”
Reflecting Modi’s new message to his followers – it is now essential to secure sabka vishwas (trust of all) – the President promised a “new India” where the self-esteem of the citizen would be enhanced, and where brotherhood and harmony would bind the people together. These are nice words, but can end up being hollow and meaningless unless backed by action.
The government puts forward the contention, whenever it is accused of acquiescing to identity-based discrimination, that it does not choose the beneficiaries of the various social welfare programmes it runs. This however, pushes a very material understanding of the alienation of people and communities, and how to end this. Kovind's speech, because it reflects the government's viewpoint, suffers from the same malaise.
His government, he says, is “dedicated to the goal of improving the lives of all citizens, addressing their problems arising out of mis-governance and providing all the basic amenities to the last person standing at the margins of society.”
Let’s Recall Bhay, Pakshpaat, Anuraag & Dwesh
In a pluralistic society where inter-community relations are fragile owing to the widespread use of prejudice as a political strategy, not saying that the regime is committed to removing spite or malice towards other sections, perhaps violates key phrases contained in the oaths of the president and prime minister.
To conclude, it is appropriate to recall that the president swears to devote himself to “the service and well-being of the people”, and this cannot be just material as once stated by the late former President KR Narayanan. Moreover, the prime minister too is legally committed to “do right to all manner of people in accordance with the Constitution and the law, without fear or favour, affection or ill-will.”
Because this is a regime whose primary thoughts, not wrongly, are articulated within in Hindi, it is important to highlight the four operative words: Bhay, Pakshpaat, Anuraag and Dwesh.
(The writer is an author and journalist based in Delhi. His most recent books are ‘Sikhs: The Untold Agony of 1984’ and ‘Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times’. He can be reached at @NilanjanUdwin. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)
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