The Big Story: Muddled Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third Independence Day speech on Monday served as a reminder of where his government stands at the mid-way point of his five-year tenure, especially because it came right after his biggest, most transformative legislative achievement – the passage of the Constitutional Amendment that will pave the way for a Goods and Services Tax.

From being the grand hope who would transform India’s fortunes after ten years of being governed by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, Modi has turned into something much more mundane. The general response to his speech was boredom. This is to be expected – an Independence Day address is rarely stirring and can lack the bite of a campaign speech. But this is also because Modi has steadily built on things he announced in his first I-Day speech, while diluting many of his promises.

The prime minister was expected to provide a new approach to reform and has continued to speak up against populism and government expenditure. But the reference in this speech – using LED bulbs as an example – was so milquetoast that he could have avoided it altogether. While Modi has pivoted away from using the speech to bash the previous administration, something he did much more before, that means a large majority of it is a laundry list of things he takes credit for.

As with the prime minster who preceded him, Modi’s speech continued to make it seem like political discourse is somewhat unmoored from things on the ground. The platitudes dedicated to Dalits and the downtrodden were bland, giving no sense of the unrest in Kashmir, Una and elsewhere.

Early on, Modi’s policy approach was to communicate that his would not be an administration of Big Bang reforms but incrementalism. Even that seems confused now. GST is a Big Bang reform and turning Balochistan into a major part of India’s Pakistan policy would be a similarly radical shift. Yet Modi spent very little time on the GST and, while he ensured Balochistan would be in the headlines, we still have no idea how it will fit into his overall Pakistan policy, which has never had much cohesion.

Three Independence Day speeches in, it’s still hard to make anything of this muddled government’s overall vision and approach. GST will help cement Modi’s legacy as prime minister if and when it is implemented, but even that he can’t take full credit for. Modi’s claims of helping build a more united India, meanwhile, will have to be laid at the feet of his parent organisation, which has been much more consistent in its approach in attempting to reshape India over the last three years: the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

Political Pickings

– Prime Minister Narendra Modi spent a lot of time of his Independence Day speech on his government’s achievements, but curiously, the Goods and Services Tax did not play a big role.

– A prominent Baloch leader is quite happy with Modi’s reference to Balochistan in his Independence Day speech – and wants Shah Rukh Khan to star in a film about their struggle.

– Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has made it clear that his son Akhilesh, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, needs to fall in line when it comes to party affairs.

– Here’s what’s happening with the Aam Aadmi Party’s campaigns in Gujarat, Goa and Punjab.

Punditry

– The Washington Post’s Rama Lakshmi casts External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj as India’s Supermom of State.

– Amitava Kuma in the New Yorker writes on the agony and ecstasy of India at the Olympics.

– Hartosh Singh Bal argues in the Caravan that India needs a Press Freedom Bill, even if the government doesn’t want one.