Exactly a year after his famous ‘‘I have no promises to make but only promises to keep’’ speech, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh used his second Independence Day speech to outline the aam aadmi-centred promises he had kept to achieve the twin goals of ‘‘rapid economic growth and ensuring social justice.’’ At the same time, he called upon the people of the nation to keep their side of the bargain in grabbing the great ‘‘opportunity’’ offered to India by history. In words reminiscent of Nehru’s ‘‘Tryst with Destiny’’ speech 58 years ago, Manmohan Singh said, ‘‘There comes a time in the history of a nation when it can be said that the time has come to make history. We are today at the threshold of such an era. The world wants us to do well and take our rightful place on the world stage. There are no external constraints on our development. If there are any hurdles, they are internal.’’ He went on to exhort: ‘‘We must seize this moment and grab this opportunity. ..Our political system and leadership must show sagacity, wisdom and foresight so that we are able to make the best of this moment and make India a truly great nation.’’ It was time to build ‘‘a new India’’, he said more than once, ‘‘an India where there are no barriers between the government and the people.’’ It was this last theme—a government wedded to the welfare of the people— that formed the leitmotif of his speech, delivered in Hindi at the Red Fort this morning. While the Prime Minister stressed on the ‘‘unprecedented growth’’ the country was witnessing at the moment (‘‘it is not only us but the entire world which is viewing India as an emerging power of these times’’) he took care not to repeat the NDA regime’s doomed ‘India Shining’ rhetoric. ‘‘Our vision,’’ he underlined, ‘‘is not just of economic growth but also of a growth which would improve the life of the aam aadmi.’’ The National Rural Employment Guarantee bill, the impending bill to restore forest rights to adivasis, the ‘Bharat Nirman’ programme to build rural infrastructure and proposed measures to benefit workers in the unorganised sectors were part of this vision, the PM seemed to suggest. But Manmohan Singh also indicated, albeit in passing, that his belief in economic reforms had not been subsumed by the imperatives of social justice. For instance, he made it clear that free power for farmers or other powerful constituencies was simply not tenable. Calling for far greater investment in the power sector, Singh said, ‘‘I have often said that, excepting for the poorest sections of society, giving electricity free of cost to other sections will worsen the financial condition of our electric utilities.’’ He further said, ‘‘We need to get used to paying a reasonable price for electricity just as we do for petroleum products. Through this, we can ensure supply of electricity in the right quantity, at the right time and of right quality.’’ Similarly, he also made it clear that the government would not tolerate labour indiscipline. While talking of providing a social security net for workers, he said, ‘‘However, I would like to emphasise that workers too have a responsibility. Wherever they may be working, in factories or in firms, they should work in cooperation with the management so that profitability of enterprises increases and they also benefit from this.’’ Compared to the emphasis of economic empowerment of the aam aadmi, the UPA’s other pet theme of secularism got relatively less space in the speech. One reason for this was the belief that communal forces were no longer as pervasive or active. To quote the PM, ‘‘There is an atmosphere of calm. peace and communal harmony all round the country. We believe that this is an important achievement.’’ Linking the scrapping of POTA with the welfare of minorities, the PM said, ‘‘It is essential that minorities should have every opportunity of carrying on their daily activities with a feeling of security and happiness. This is also our goal. Hence we have repealed POTA.’’ He also talked of a new 15-point programme for minorities but avoided any mention of the communal carnage of 1984 or 2002 or contentious issues such as history textbooks et al. A gently yet firm stance was projected on insurgent violence in J-K and the North East with the PM carefully distinguishing between extremist violence and extremism. “If violence continues, then our response too will be hard. I am aware that the government of Pakistan has put some checks on the activities of terrorists from its soil. However, it is not possible to achieve success through half-hearted efforts. It is necessary that the entire infrastructure of terrorism is totally dismantled,” he said. On the external relations front, the PM highlighted the engagement with Washington—US and India as two large democracies had a valuable duty, he said—but added that India and Russia were “old friends.” In the end, the address seemed all-encompassing. At the end of the hour, the PM had spoken of opportunities for sportspersons to efficient use water, from cleaner cities to the insurgency in J-K, from disaster management to an egalitarian society marked by women as empowered and educated as men.
