The speech PM Modi should deliver this Independence Day

The Print

a day ago

I know I have been constantly speaking about how India will look two decades from now. But today, I feel I must talk about the India of today rather than spin a dream of the distant future.
Today I wish you a Happy Independence Day. As you know, Viksit Bharat by 2047 is the stated goal of my government. But on this day, I wish to dwell in detail on the reality of India in 2025. Not the Viksit Bharat dream to be realised 22 years later.
Over the last 11 years of my tenure as Prime Minister, I have made several promises. In 2014, I promised 'achhe din', or good days. A few years later, I vowed to create 'New India'. Then I spoke of the coming of 'Amrit Kaal', and then, of course, I bestowed upon you the idea of 'Viksit Bharat.' It was all meant to create a feel-good mahaul.
But I must admit that 'achhe din' have not really arrived. Let me correct myself, yes, achhe din have arrived for some (among them my good friends who shall not be named), but they have not arrived for most Indians.
A 2024 study by the World Inequality Database shows that 1 per cent Indians control over 40 per cent of the country's total wealth.
India may be free of the British Raj, but is now in the grip of the 'Billionaire Raj.' The bottom 50 per cent have access to only 3-4 per cent of the country's wealth.
The founder and chief investment officer of Marcellus Investment Managers, Saurabh Mukherjea, said earlier this year that there is income stagnation for the majority of Indians. The so-called 'consumption boom' is a result of availability of credit, hence it is not sustainable. Inequalities are becoming sharper and more entrenched than ever before.
According to a report by Blume Ventures, as many as one billion Indians (in a country of over 1.4 billion, so 90 per cent) lack the money to spend on discretionary services. It means they don't have any spending money beyond daily existence.
The rich don't seem happy either. Between 2017 and 2022, over 30,000 High Net-Worth Individuals or HNIs gave up Indian citizenship. In 2024, more than 4,000 millionaires were expected to give up Indian citizenship. Last year, 2 lakh Indians gave up their Indian citizenship.
Notebandi to Smart Cities
Mitron, in 2014, I inaugurated the Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Centre in Mumbai. At that time, I spoke of how plastic surgery and genetic science are evident in the revered figures of Lord Ganesha and the Mahabharata hero Karna.
'We worship Lord Ganesha. There must have been some plastic surgeon at that time who got an elephant's head on the body of a human being and began the practice of plastic surgery,' I said.
I always take credit for India's scientific and space missions. I congratulate ISRO, but to be honest, I have always chosen blind faith and superstition over scientific temper.
That's also why I don't understand the fuss over my statement last year that I was sent by god and that my birth is 'non–biological'.
Mitron, on the evening of 8 November 2016, I announced my famous notebandi policy or demonetisation.
At 8 pm, with just four hours' notice, I declared that Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes — or 86 per cent of India's cash in circulation — would become worthless by midnight. Through this momentous step, I promised to eradicate black money.
In fact, I said that if I did not succeed in eradicating black money within 50 days, I should be hanged.
Of course, cash seems to have made a comeback. The recent shocking discovery of piles of currency notes at the Delhi residence of a High Court judge seems to bear this out. But I got carried away that November evening back in 2016. Demonetisation has been a resounding failure. Scores of small businesses were destroyed. If it had been a success, would my government not be celebrating 'Notebandi Diwas' every 8 November? But no, we do not.
I love slogans, catchy phrases, acronyms, and pithy one-liners. I deliver them like a well-trained actor, firing up audiences with thrilling dialogue. They also make for great media headlines. My government's spending on advertising and publicity has gone up by a startling 84 per cent since 2021. In 2024-25 the government spent over 600 crore on advertising.
In 2015, I inaugurated the Smart Cities Mission, promising to transform 100 cities. But today, many of these so-called Smart Cities are grappling with water-logging and collapsing bridges. Vadodara in Gujarat, selected as a Smart City, saw a bridge collapse just last month. Patna is another Smart City where, only two months after inauguration, a double-decker flyover caved in.
New Delhi, the national capital, has suffered some of the worst water-logging, exposing a lack of readiness for extreme weather. In addition to the woes of Smart Cities, the roof of a government school in Rajasthan caved in last month, killing seven students.
In my spree of inaugurations and announcements, I tend not to emphasise the need for vigilant maintenance and regular infrastructure checks. My flamboyant media and PR events are like escapist fantasies. Administrative systems are encouraged to turn a blind eye to day-to-day realities.
In 2016, I promised to double farmers' income in six years. However, a report says that most states have failed to achieve this goal. Normally, I would blame state governments, but some BJP-ruled states are also in the list.
I must point out here that I don't like to give funds to Opposition-ruled states. West Bengal is owed Rs 1.7 lakh crore under various heads, including Rs 7,000 crore MGNREGA dues and over Rs 8,000 crore under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY). I generally don't like states that don't vote for me. I speak of 'cooperative federalism', but usually practice discriminatory federalism.
Farmer protests broke out in 2020 against the three farm laws enacted by my government without dialogue with farmer organisations. Governments ruled by my party, BJP, tear-gassed and lathi-charged protesting farmers. I had drawn attention to certain andolanjivis among farmers. Andolanjivis are professional protesters. They are 'Leftist', 'Urban Naxals', and 'Khan Market Gang' types preventing me from building the Bharat of my imagination.
I must admit though that farmer suicides are refusing to come down. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, in 2022, over 11,000 farmers committed suicide.
Here I must also state that the NCRB — a vital record of crimes — in India is no longer being published regularly. A Rajya Sabha MP had asked a question about why NCRB for 2023 — which should have been published in 2024 — has not yet been made available.
India's decennial Census — which has been published every 10 years since 1871 and was due in 2021 — is also delayed. That's why some say my NDA government should be called the 'No Data Available' government.
Also read: BJP vs BJP battle in Constitution Club is a glimpse of widening fault lines—Mumbai to Lucknow
Blame Nehru, not me
In 2014, I coined another slogan: 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas.' (Together with everyone, development for all). But, my government and I have failed to deliver on this slogan too. Today, religious divides and persecution of minorities regularly make news. Recently, two Catholic nuns from Kerala were arrested and falsely charged with human trafficking in Chhattisgarh. The nuns had been consistently targeted by Hindutva outfits allied to my party like the Bajrang Dal. In Maharashtra, the Qureshi community are protesting against attacks on meat traders by self -styled 'Gau Rakshaks' who are also allied to the broad Hindutva school of thought of my party. Amnesty International has protested against the use of bulldozers to raze the properties of Muslims in Uttar Pradesh, saying the people of the community are being singled out for so–called 'bulldozer justice.' The Supreme Court has called these bulldozer actions 'unacceptable' and halted them.
I myself have often harked to religious hatred in my public speeches. In the 2024 general elections, I declared that the Congress will take away women's mangalsutras and give them to infiltrators or Muslims. Ahead of the 2017 UP Assembly elections, I referred to 'shamshan ghat' and 'kabristan.' In 2019, I announced that those protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) can be recognised by their clothes. As Gujarat chief minister, my 'Hum paanch, hamaare pachees' (we five, our twenty five) speech was famous.
In the last decade, we have normalised hate speech and made it acceptable to voice open prejudices against Muslims and other minorities.
I have made promises toward the youth and repeatedly declared that Yuva Shakti will drive India forward. But today, students are tormented by examination paper leaks. Recently, candidates have been protesting in New Delhi against mismanagement in the SSC Selection Post Phase 13 examination. Over 70 examination papers have leaked in the last seven years.
In 2015, I coined another slogan — 'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao.' But until 2022 — a decade after the fund was set up — 30 per cent of Nirbhaya Funds for safety of women remained unutilised. And a parliamentary panel, in 2021, said over 70 per cent of the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme was used for advertising. Grisly crimes against women are taking place, particularly in BJP-ruled states.
India's supposedly autonomous state institutions are today almost entirely subordinated to the political executive headed by me. About 95 per cent cases of the Enforcement Directorate are against Opposition leaders. Since 2014, of the 25 Opposition leaders facing corruption cases, 23 were given a clean chit after they joined the BJP. I have started this new kind of politics—politics of the washing machine.
On the subject of democratic institutions, I don't go to Parliament much. In the last 11 years, during the Question Hour in Parliament (when ministers and the Prime Minister are supposed to provide oral or written answers to MPs' questions), I have not answered a single question asked by any MP. In fact, if I do come for the Question Hour (which is rarely), I never speak.
In this monsoon session when the Rajya Sabha debated Operation Sindoor, I did not bother to go to Parliament to reply. Why should I waste my time in Parliament when so many countries are inviting me to accept extremely important awards?
I coined slogans like 'Abki Baar Trump sarkar' and 'Namaste Trump' to cement my ties with US President Donald Trump. However, he has now turned into a bewafa (an unfaithful person). I get so dazzled by slogans and international photo-ops that I believe they can take the place of serious and careful diplomacy and trust building. By abstaining from UN resolutions on Israel's war on Gaza or not speaking out on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, I have lost the trust that the world reposed in India's principled foreign policy. I should have foreseen that the West would hold this transactionalism against India.
Finally a word about my relationship with the media. I hold a record of sorts: in the last 11 years, I have not held a single open press conference — the only Indian PM to achieve this feat.
As I like to say: apni dosti bani rahe (long may our friendship endure).
The question inevitably arises: why have I not been able to fulfil all my promises, vows, commitments, slogans, catchy phrases, PR announcements, well-marketed media campaigns, massively hyped schemes and programmes for the last 11 years?
The answer is simple. One man is singularly responsible: former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. For the last 11 years, Nehru has been constantly blocking my efforts and causing the fiascos that are my many yojanas and abhiyans. Nehru is the reason most of my initiatives turn into disasters. So please don't blame me for my failures. Please blame Jawaharlal Nehru.
Jai Hind. Jai Bharat.
Sagarika Ghose is a Rajya Sabha MP, All India Trinamool Congress. She tweets @sagarikaghose. Views are personal.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)