Don't worry over external threats or tariffs, march ahead and seize the moment, PM Modi tells India in I-Day address

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2 days ago

Listening to the prime minister's speech from the ramparts of Red Fort Friday on the occasion of the 79th Independence Day, his longest address so far at 103 minutes, it was hard not to feel a sense of understated foreboding.
Narendra Modi has evidently reached a conclusion that ties with the United States – critical for India's economic development through enhanced trade, investment, and technology exchange – are unlikely to see any immediate improvement. It may turn even more hostile, putting at risk the growth prospects of 1.4 billion people.
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The partnership with the US is crucial, because it boosts market access for Indian goods and services, attracts American investment, and supports critical sectors such as information technology, defence, and critical and emerging technology. Unfortunately, the geopolitical sweet spot that gave India that opportunity, is over.
In a stunning reversal of global dynamics, India has become Donald Trump's primary target, as if it is New Delhi that has waged a war on Ukraine. Trump has unleashed a trade war against India, and by imposing an additional 25% tariff on India for buying Russian oil (for a cumulative 50% levy) the US president has made India the pawn in his game of one-upmanship over Vladimir Putin. He and his cabinet members are promising even greater punishment for India if talks fail in Alaska.
Leaving aside Trump's penchant for using America's commercial leverage to achieve geopolitical goals, this case hits different. If secondary sanctions on Russia to make Putin arrive at a ceasefire is Trump's aim, he would have equally penalised China, the top buyer of Russian oil, Türkiye, the third highest customer of Russian fuel, and Europe, the top buyer of Russian natural gas.
The targeting of India and savaging of the relationship is more personal and feral for Trump, who appears to be mighty displeased with New Delhi's refusal to accept the lie that Trump engineered the India-Pakistan ceasefire.
Deeper still lies India's rejection of Trump's extractive terms during trade talks that would have required India to expose its vulnerable agriculture and dairy sectors to American agrobusinesses and conglomerates, and refusal to buckle under the US president's extreme pressure tactics. The result has been a relationship collapse without a floor to arrest the fall.
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From the prime minister's vantage point, the development couldn't be more disadvantageous for India. Trump's trade war practically nukes India's access to the American market, and since Trump's antagonism borders on obsessive and paranoic, no rational trade-off may provide a remedy.
It means that in the near to medium term, at the very least till Trump remains in Oval Office, there is little prospect of a détente. On top of it, the US president is leaning heavily towards a compact with China and appears to be giving the US Indo-Pacific strategy a quiet burial.
In this context, hemmed in by Trump's punishing tariffs and a bleak outlook, Modi's speech on Friday was stunning in its sweep, expansive in approach, unflinching in conviction and unbound by difficulties. His address exhorted India to become resilient, dig deeper, achieve self-reliance to meet development goals and be unbending before adversity.
This was an address for the ages. The temptation must have been great for the prime minister to throw in the towel before Trump's aggressive pressure campaign simply because of the gamut of issues that are at stake. In a world marked by chaos, unpredictability and disorder, placed in a situation where choices range from bad to sub-optimal, Modi showed that India has chosen sovereignty over suzerainty. That is more spine than all of America's treaty allies put together.
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The speech had the audacity of ambition, the strength and resolve to go after the ambition, and the roadmap to achieve the ambition. In many ways, while the prime minister asked Indians to tighten their seat belts for tougher times ahead, he also showed the way to emerge stronger from it.
While Modi urged India to enhance its capabilities, use self-reliance as a bedrock to achieve the goal of Viksit Bharat, become self-sufficient in producing energy, achieve clean energy targets, make semiconductor chips, build own fighter jet engines, put more energy into research and development, take giant strides in the fields of operating systems, cyber security, deep tech or artificial intelligence – the message carried an underlying theme of positivity.
He called on Indians to achieve greatness without diminishing someone's capabilities. He said, 'it remains our responsibility not to waste our energy on diminishing someone else's achievements… I say this let us not expend our energy in undermining others; instead, we must devote our entire energy to improving our own abilities and achievements. When we grow and excel, the world will acknowledge our worth.'
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Modi's comments were in stark contrast with Pakistani military dictator's Asim Munir's quips in Tampa, Florida, where he compared his own country with a 'dump truck' that would clash and wreck India's 'shiny Merc' on the highway. It goes to show the paucity of ambition that plagues Pakistan, a country that would rather derail India than stitch its own growth story.
Modi's larger message was for Trump. He didn't refer to the US president by name and refrained from making a direct reference to the fallout with the US, but the insistence on lowering India's dependence on external actors and insulating India from the headwinds of a protectionist global economy was clear. The prime minister asked Indians not to grieve over the lost opportunities, but to create new ones.
'Today, when economic self-interest is growing across the globe, the demand of the hour is that we must not sit lamenting over crises. With courage, we must strive to enhance our own strength and standing. And from my 25 years of administrative experience, I can say this—if we choose this path, and if everyone chooses it, then no selfish interest will ever be able to entrap us.'
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The steel in his speech was evident when Modi obliquely referred to the trade war, Trump's pressure campaign to 'crack open' India's agriculture and dairy sectors, and his escalation of tariffs on Indian exports. Modi reiterated his resolve to not negotiate any deal that compromises farmers, especially in the face of aggressive trade demands.
'India's farmers, cattle rearers, fishermen, these are our biggest priorities. Modi is standing like a wall against any harmful policy related to the farmers of India, the fishermen of India and the cattle rearers of India. India will never accept any compromise regarding its farmers, its livestock farmers, its fishermen.'
There are three broad brush strokes that emerge from Modi's speech apart from the overwhelming theme of 'self-reliance', which he said was an essential condition in India's goal to become a developed nation by 2047.
The first is aspirational. Modi promised that breaking out of the inertia of the past, where we lost 50-60 years by aborting the development of semiconductors, India has now started working in 'mission mode'. 'Six different semiconductor units are taking shape on the ground, and we have already given the green signal to four new units.' By the end of this year, said the prime minister, the first 'Made in India chip, manufactured in Bharat by the people of Bharat,' will be rolled out.
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The prime minister said instead of being reliant on imported fuel, a compulsion that has pushed India into geopolitical complexities and is costing us a lot of money, the focus should be on clean energy.
He said 'with Mission Green Hydrogen, Bharat is today investing thousands of crores of rupees. Keeping in mind the future of energy, Bharat is also undertaking major initiatives in nuclear energy. In the field of nuclear energy, 10 new reactors are progressing rapidly.'
India is also launching National Deep Water Exploration Mission to explore underwater oil and gas reserves.
The second is security, which Modi said is an essential condition for prosperity. He announced a change in India's doctrine on terrorism and warned Pakistan of grave consequences if it tries another nuclear blackmail.
Reliving the painful memories of Operation Sindoor, he said, 'We have established a new normal: those who nurture and harbour terrorism, and those who empower terrorists, will no longer be seen as separate… Bharat has now decided that we will no longer tolerate these nuclear threats. The nuclear blackmail that has gone on for so long will no longer be endured. If our enemies continue this attempt in the future, our army will decide on its own terms, at the time of its choosing, in the manner it deems fit, and target the objectives it selects and we will act accordingly. We will give a fitting and crushing response.'
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Calling Operation Sindoor a demonstration of India's strategic autonomy and indigenous capabilities, key to tackle external threats, Modi announced the launch of Sudarshan Chakra Mission, that in 10 years from now will provide impregnable security cover through new platforms of technology to 'all the important places of the nation, which include strategic as well as civilian areas, like hospitals, railways, any centre of faith', etc.
The details of the project aren't clear at this stage, but the motive is. It is to protect the capabilities that India will build to move forward.
Finally, from the ramparts of Red Fort, the prime minister for the first time mentioned attempted demographic change in India, especially in the border regions, as a pacing threat and 'deliberate conspiracy' to alter the country's demography.
He said illegal infiltration is 'snatching away the livelihoods of our youth. These infiltrators are targeting our sisters and daughters. This will not be tolerated. These infiltrators are misleading innocent tribals and seizing their lands. The nation will not endure this.'
The High-Power Demography Mission announced by Modi seeks to address a crisis that weakens India from within and hinders the country's capabilities to deal with external threats.
At a time when India faces intense geopolitical headwinds, and yet must keep its growth steady if not push higher to achieve the Viksit Bharat goals that it has set for itself, Modi's speech provides the roadmap for the tricky time ahead: through self-reliance, innovation, and empowerment.
For a country that boasts of a consumer market which is among the world's largest and fastest-growing, and is expected to reach $4 trillion by the end of 2025 behind only the US and China, India does not need to lose sleep over external threats or tariffs.
It must seize the moment, build everything from jet engines to semiconductors, and emerge as a self-confident, self-reliant nation. That, in essence is Modi's homework for India.
The writer is Deputy Executive Editor, Firstpost. He tweets as @sreemoytalukdar. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost's views.