tAn Independence Day speech is an occasion to celebrate our freedom, remember our martyrs, the countless men and women to whom independent India will always remain indebted, to take pride in our achievements and identify our challenges. It is not a platform for self-praise, for partisan politics and for the promotion of divisive forces. In his speech on the 79th Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi crossed the line between being the PM of a secular democratic republic to being a pracharak of a sectarian organisation. In doing so, he besmirched the historic occasion and insulted our martyrs.
One can challenge many of the claims made by the PM in his speech of development — the increasing landlessness of the rural poor, stagnating wages, the dilution of laws such as rights under MNREGA or the Forest Rights Act, unemployment, the huge backlog in promotions and vacancies in ST/SC posts as pointed out in the recent report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee and so on. But these debates and arguments are not new and will continue. It is not unusual for a PM to reiterate claims, however flawed they may be. These will no doubt be challenged as they should be. What is striking in a speech is also the omissions. Last year, the PM had spoken a great deal about the “ termite of corruption.” This year, the word “ corruption” was hardly mentioned at all. Has the declared war against corruption ended? Only a few days ago the US SEC, told a New York Eastern District court that they had asked India’s Ministry of Law and Justice for help in delivering the summons and complaint to Adani officials in a Rs 2000 crore bribery case but the authorities in India have even after six months not delivered the documents. In another telling answer in Parliament, the government said that Rs 35,000 crore in tax and penalty demands were raised in the last 10 years under the Black Money Act (2015), but the recovery so far has been just Rs 338 crore. This is when there has been a surge in Indian-linked funds in Swiss banks.
The PM made special mention of the Emergency, calling those who imposed the Emergency “sinners”. The choice of words is his prerogative. But it is ironic that he should lay claim to defending democracy at a time when the very basis of parliamentary democracy— the right to vote— is under attack. The country expected the PM to express his commitment to defend the right to vote. In its interim judgment on Thursday, the Supreme Court expressed concern that the right to universal adult franchise must be protected. Its order upheld many of the issues being raised by the opposition regarding the SIR exercise. The autonomy of institutions mandated by the constitution is under serious threat. These concerns are absent in the PM’s address. Missing words like “corruption” and “right to vote” tell their own tale.
But two specific aspects of his speech should be of deep concern to all Indians.
The first aspect was his astounding warning of a “conspiracy” by “ghuspetias” to change the demography of India, repeating the unsubstantiated accusation, which incidentally was the main campaign in the Jharkhand State Assembly elections, that “Muslim ghuspetias” have taken over tribal lands and exploited tribal women.” The PM’s party was decisively defeated in the said elections, but no lessons were learnt. If there is such a conspiracy, what was the Home and Defence Ministry’s role all these years? How is it that Parliament has never been taken into confidence of such a “conspiracy”? Presumably, the government of the country sending in such “ghuspetias” would be involved. Is it not contradictory that India should be giving shelter to a person who headed such a government for the decade when “ghuspetias” invaded India? The figures on land takeover in tribal areas show that the largest amount of land has been taken over by corporates, helped by the central government. According to a reply given in Parliament in February this year, there were a total of 6,779 sexual crimes against Scheduled Tribe women registered between 2020 and 2022. Nowhere does it mention crimes by “ghuspetias”. It is shameful that the PM should use an Independence Day platform to make such serious assertions of a communal nature without facts. Across India, in the name of detection of foreigners, poor migrant Bengali-speaking workers, and particularly Muslim migrants, are being subjected to inhuman treatment. There are international protocols for dealing with illegal migrants. They must be identified and deported according to those norms. But here in India, it is entirely driven by communal considerations. It is this demonisation that was reflected in the PM’s speech.
Secondly, and arguably a statement constituting an unprecedented breach of trust, the PM used the occasion to lavish praise on the RSS. This organisation was described in no uncertain terms by India’s first Home Minister Vallabhbhai Patel, revered as an Iron Man by the BJP. Here is what he said while banning the RSS: “To root out the forces of hate and violence that are at work in our country and imperil the freedom of the nation and darken her fair name”. “Undesirable and even dangerous activities have been carried on by members of the Sangh… individual members of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh have indulged in acts of violence involving arson, robbery”. Since then, the RSS has been named and implicated as being responsible for violent communal riots decade after decade in independent India by official Commissions of Inquiry. The PM did not just whitewash this truth; he gave it his stamp of public approval — a violation of the trust he holds to protect the constitution and its values.
Thus, the line was crossed and Prime Minister Modi became Pracharak Modi — for India and the world to see. A sad day indeed for India, that is Bharat.
The writer is a senior CPI (M) leader
