Opinion By linking Nari Shakti to national progress, roots to scaling heights, PM Modi enlivens the idea of aspiration

In his Independence Day speech from Red Fort, his ninth, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a long and large view. This was not a speech about schemes, programmes or plans, even though he mentioned several — from Swachhta Abhiyan to Atmanirbhar Bharat, Nal Se Jal to National Education Policy, ethanol blending to Covid vaccination drive. This was not about the problems and choices that crowd the nation’s present moment. This I-Day, instead, the prime ministerial viewfinder framed a country that has turned 75 and is moving towards its centenary. It captured big ideas of that journey. Of course, many of these ideas are not new, some have come up against hurdles in the past or lack of sincerity on the ground, others remained excluded from his rendition. But what was not in doubt was his attempt to re-enliven the ideas that he spoke about – by expanding one, or imparting greater urgency to another through a more vivid connect with the aam citizen. For instance, this was not the first mention of Naari Shakti, woman power, one of the themes he emphasised. It is constantly spoken of, seldom acted upon. But the PM called it “desh ki poonji (the wealth of the nation)”, and drew a link between giving the woman her rightful place and the nation’s ease in fulfilling the goals it sets itself in the next 25 years, the Amrit Kaal. This enunciation was powerful.

The PM spoke evocatively about the pride the nation must take in its own inheritance. “Jab ham apni dharti se judenge, tab hi toh ooncha udenge (we can fly truly high only when we have feet on our own ground)”. Only an India in touch with its roots can give “vishwa ke samadhan”, answers to the world’s problems, he said, be it indigenous solutions to climate change, or the crisis of family values. And that even as India feels the world’s gaze, it must liberate itself from psychological enslavement to the need for external validation — the affirmation should lie within. His mention of “vividhta (diversity)” was perfunctory, while he spoke feelingly of an aspirational society that is impatient for change even as it is in the throes of a “punar jagran (re-awakening)”.

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But there was something missing, something lost, in the PM’s talk of “saamoohik chetna (collective consciousness)”, “sankalp (resolve)”, “samarthya (capability)”, and “anusandhan (innovation)”. There was no outreach to those who feel excluded or left out from the collective, as it is defined by the PM’s party and government, or those who are weak and need a leg-up to participate in the fulfilment of ambitious national goals. The PM’s emphasis on “nagrik ka kartavya (citizen’s duties)” also seemed to be the other side of a silence — on the government’s responsibility to be more compassionate and sensitive to the needs of those who aspire, first, to an unquestioned sense of belonging and inalienable community. It’s a thought, perhaps, that could be developed more in the PM’s next eloquent I-Day speech, as the nation moves a year closer to its centenary.

This editorial first appeared in the print edition on August 16, 2022 under the title ‘The Ideas Day’.