Is Modi changing his tune?

While a lot of disappointment was expressed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had failed, in his Independence Day speech, to make any definite announcement on the One Rank One Pension (OROP) issue, a significant point he made on communal and caste harmony hasn’t got the prominence it deserves.

For me, his last speech was significant for getting the gender nuances right, coming down harshly on sexual harassment and violence against women, and making a sterling pitch for toilets for girls in schools, particularly in rural India. He must have touched a chord and shamed our collective conscience that girl children had to drop out at puberty because there weren’t separate toilets for them in schools, because during the last one year, the building of toilets in schools with adequate water supply has been a focal point of the Swachh Bharat initiative. Last year, Modi had also dwelt at length on the heinous practice of female foeticide and severely criticised the craze for the male child.

This time around, the novelty and shine had gone out, expectedly from the Red Fort speech — a maiden speech on any historic occasion does have its own halo — but there was sufficient rhetoric and enough slogans for which Modi is known. We got a new one this time too: Start Up India, Stand Up India.

But a key point the Prime Minister made, without any fuss or frills but which has hopefully gone down where it was directed, pertained to the danger of both communalism and casteism. Cautioning “125 crore Indians that our unity, simplicity, fraternity and harmony are our biggest strengths”, he said India could not afford to have this strength dented, diminished or assaulted in any way. “If the unity of this country gets disturbed, the dreams also get shattered. So whether it is the poison of casteism, communal fanaticism, we shouldn’t allow it to exist in any form whatsoever. We should not allow it to take root.”

He added that both these evils could be successfully fought only by the fruits of development, and their equitable distribution to all sections of society.

One would have loved to hear much more on this topic in his rather long and rambling speech, for there have been too many communally poisonous comments coming from his own party and the larger Sangh Parivar. Thankfully, these have abated of late, but for too many decades this country has been held hostage to communal polarisation, with provocation and hateful responses coming from the Muslim side too.

While many perceive that the promise of economic development is yet to show visible results on the ground, the emphasis on casteism and communal fanaticism comes as a refreshing and surprising departure.

Deftly sidestepping the assault by the Opposition and media on the NDA government over the alleged Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh, and the chiki scam in Maharashtra, he said the Centre had provided a clean government. He thundered, “This government does not have any allegation of corruption against it…even for a single rupee.”

On the contrary, he said, efforts were on to eliminate corruption: even licences for FM stations were right now being auctioned; despite opposition and protests from some quarters, he had persisted with this. The result: a sum of ₹1,000 crore had already been realised and this money would be used for people’s welfare, he promised. And ₹6,500 crore had come into the exchequer in the form of declaration of undisclosed income.

More than anything else, Modi’s personal interest and commitment to building toilets in government schools deserves applause. The task is immense, and as he himself admitted, last year when he announced the resolve to ensure that every government school had toilets, including separate ones for girls, “we didn’t realise there were 2.62 lakh schools requiring 4.25 lakh toilets”, but this task was “nearly completed” within the short span of one year.

And this has been because his government has managed to build the right partnerships with both corporates and voluntary organisations. A laudable achievement indeed because if, on the 69th anniversary of our independence, we can’t even ensure this simple facility for our children, whose enrolment in our schools is improving at an impressive pace, it’s a collective blot on all of us.

But a much greater evil than poverty, deprivation, and perhaps even corruption, is animosity, and feelings of hurt, injustice and vengeance among the minorities, for these are exploited by India’s enemies.

We’ve had disturbing intelligence alerts on the ISIS sniffing for opportunities to trigger terrorist activities in India. What Pakistan can do and has done on that score in India is well documented. The very thought of some lumpen, poisoned or misguided Muslim youth falling into the ISIS trap, is horrifying. Particularly because credible and noteworthy leadership among Indian Muslims is conspicuous by its absence. Or else the greater majority of Indian Muslims would not have been in the shackles of poverty and illiteracy even after 68 years of independence.

Modi has been criticised abundantly for being a “loner” or a “one-man show”; he addressed this by making numerous references to “Team India” in his address, making it clear that “to take the nation to new heights, build the nation and also protect it”, the participation of each and every Indian was necessary and his constant endeavour was to do that.

Maybe the “Team India” references in his speech were one too many, but it does show a welcome change of stance, even though it’s a mere promise at this stage.

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