Independence day: Mandatory attendance, Modi's extempore speech gives babus jitters

As the nation waits for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s much-awaited maiden speech from the ramparts of New Delhi’s Red Fort on the forthcoming Independence Day, the babudom is in jitters on two different counts.

In the first development, Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth has written a letter to secretaries of all central ministries and departments asking them to “suitably advise” all officers of their respective ministries/departments who have been invited for the main function at Red Fort to be present. The Modi government’s top bureaucrat has also warned that “a serious view” would be taken if the invited officials do not show up. (See image below.)

This is the first time when the government has issued such a fiat and made it mandatory for all invited officials to attend the function. Every year officials of the Central government are sent invites for the main Independence Day function at Red Fort where the Prime Minister unfurls the national flag and then addresses the nation. Officials up to the level of Director in various ministries and departments are invited to attend the function at Red Fort.

But most of the invited officials ignore the invite and prefer to watch the PM’s speech on TV from the comforts of their homes. In many cases, the officials don’t even bother to watch the PM’s speech on TV as they take it as a holiday. Instead they prefer to take their families out in the nearby hills for a brief holiday.

But the Cabinet Secretary’s fiat has poured cold water on such plans, particularly when the Independence Day this year falls on a Friday which had given the babus a golden chance of taking their families out for a minimum three-day holiday.

The thinking of the Modi government is that those officials who are invited for the I-Day function are invariably those who bear direct responsibility for implementing the PM’s vision for the coming year which the Prime Minister would be unveiling in his address to the nation.

Modi Wants to Speak Extempore in his Address to the Nation

Another problem has erupted, this time for top bureaucrats. Modi has told his advisors and top bureaucrats that he wants to speak extempore while addressing the nation from the ramparts of Red Fort.

The officials have red-flagged Modi’s idea on the ground that hundreds of diplomats from scores of countries would be attending the function. The standard drill is that the foreign diplomats are given a copy of the PM’s speech in English minutes before the event knowing that the Prime Minister would be speaking in Hindi. In case of Modi this is a certainty as he will be speaking in Hindi.

Modi has been told that foreign diplomats will be completely at sea if Modi speaks extempore in Hindi and no prepared text is available. Same is the case with Indian dignitaries from non-Hindi states who will be attending the function. Moreover, unlike proceedings in parliament and international functions in Vigyan Bhavan, there will be no live translation facility for the guests.

Modi’s officials and advisors are still trying to persuade the Prime Minister to have a prepared text. They have told him that the I-Day address is a major policy speech of the PM and he cannot and should not take any risks.

A middle path may be worked out. It may be something like this. The PM finally agrees to have a prepared text which will be circulated to the dignitaries present. On select points, Modi goes extempore to explain and elaborate more on his pet ideas and schemes that he is expected to announce.