India: Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Friday termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech on Independence Day at the Red Fort as “stale, hypocritical, insipid, and troubling”.
In an X post, Ramesh said what is “most troubling” is PM Modi’s praise for the RSS in his Independence Day speech, which he said is a “blatant breach of the spirit of a constitutional, secular republic” and a desperate attempt to appease the Sangh.
“The PM was tired today. Soon he will be retired,” the Congress leader added.
He said, the same recycled slogans about Viksit Bharat, Atmanirbhar Bharat, and “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas” have been heard year after year with little to show in terms of measurable outcomes. The “Made-in-India” semiconductor chip promise has now been made innumerable times — each time with fanfare, each time without delivery. It has in fact been made with a huge lie – which is Mr. Modi’s trademark – given that India’s first Semiconductor Complex was set up in Chandigarh in the early 1980s. The rhetoric on protecting farmers has become hollow and unbelievable given his history of attempting to bulldoze the three black farm laws and in the absence of a legal guarantee for MSP, the setting of MSP at 50% over the comprehensive cost of cultivation, or a farm loan waiver. The lip-service to job-creation as a target has also become an empty ritual rather than a credible roadmap.
Ramesh feels the PM waxed eloquent on unity, inclusion, and democracy, at a time when he has presided over and engineered the collapse of our most foundational Constitutional institutions like the Election Commission. He has yet to answer any of the most foundational questions raised by the Leader of Opposition over the credibility of the election mechanism, and is going full throttle with a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls in Bihar which has disenfranchised lakhs of voters. His claims of empowering states ring hollow when the Centre continues to erode federalism, marginalise elected state government, and throttle or topple Opposition-run governments.
He said, Independence Day should be a moment for vision, candour, and inspiration. Instead, today’s address was a bland mix of self-congratulation and selective storytelling — devoid of any honest acknowledgment of the deep economic distress, the unemployment crisis, and the glaring and growing economic inequality in our society.
The most troubling element of the PM’s speech today was his name-checking of the RSS from the ramparts of the Red Fort — a blatant breach of the spirit of a constitutional, secular republic. It is nothing but a desperate attempt to appease the organisation in the run-up to his 75th birthday next month. Decisively weakened after the events of June 4th, 2024, he is now at their complete mercy and reliant on Mohan Bhagwat’s good offices for the extension of his tenure post-September. This politicisation of Independence Day for personal and organisational gain is deeply corrosive to our democratic ethos.
