Look into the mirror first: What PM Narendra Modi told Congress with his Independence Day speech

“The ‘mann ki baat’ man appears to retreat into a ‘maun vrat’ whenever his colleagues are involved in scams,” Sonia Gandhi had said, while launching a blistering attack on the BJP a few days into the monsoon session of the Parliament. Prime Minister Narendra Modi - who Gandhi taunted as the ‘mann ki baat’ man - actually did little to counter the Opposition’s charge. The man known to be ever ready with singeing comebacks, kept uncharacteristically quiet throughout the Parliament’s stormy session. The Opposition, on the other hand, went to great lengths of provocation, got suspended, then chanted slogans outside the Parliament, only to draw a blank from the Prime Minister. Sushma Swaraj - one of Modi’s key ministers - faced the Opposition’s demand for resignation with a little help from Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. The latter helped him build a defence against the Opposition’s stance. The Monsoon session turned out to be a wash-out. Yet, the Prime Minister didn’t utter a word. But today was different. He broke the ‘maun vrat’ and how. Anyone who followed his speech today closely today, couldn’t miss the rebuttal to Congress’ allegations folded into an enthusiastic address to the country. In one of the longest speeches he has made, Modi spoke about everything from communalism and casteism to agriculture are the government’s digital initiatives. However, some of the information he shared with his audience, came with a prelude - of how government has been trying to ‘fix’ things. That amounts to telling the Opposition that his government has been busy mending what the UPA has damaged, so the latter really has little ground to make lofty allegations against the BJP. Therefore, Modi, in his second Independence Day address, focussed largely on the issue of corruption and asserted that the steps taken by his government over the last 15 months to deal with the “termite” had started yielding results. One will remember that Modi single-handedly routed the Congress riding on allegations of malpractices, nepotism and corruption against the party. Responding to opposition criticism that nothing is happening on the problem of black money, he said “some people love to spread pessimism” as he informed that about Rs 6500 cr of undeclared money has been disclosed during the compliance window provided by the government. [caption id=“attachment_2393934” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi. PTI[/caption] In fact, while explaining what initiatives the government has taken in various sectors, Modi made sure he mentioned that a lot of money in these sectors had been lost due to rampant corruption - thereby aiming the corruption bomb right back at the Congress. He spoke about a number of initiatives to end corruption and bring transparency and proposed doing away with the practice of interviews for small jobs, contending that this becomes a route for corruption. That was, obviously, his way of telling that the previous government let avenues of corruption remain open, which his government is busy shutting down. Also, by emphasising the extent of corruption that exists across sectors in the country, he perhaps, tried to suggest that it was slightly rich of the Congress to create a din over an issue like Lalitgate. It will definitely work against the Congress that they didn’t shout and cry as much about a serious scam like Vyapam, than they did over the easier and much tabloid-friendly issue of Lalit Modi. During the 85-minute address, he talked about the much-anticipated ‘One-Rank, One-Pension’, saying the government has “in-principle accepted” it and he was hopeful of a positive outcome of the ongoing discussions which are in the “last stage”. He mentioned the announcements made during his first Independence Day address last year and said many of them had been implemented in a time-bound manner. The government programmes are focussed on welfare of the poor and other under privileged sections while ensuring reduction in inflation and efforts to boost growth to double digit, he said. “Be it the poison of casteism or the frenzy of communalism, these have no place in the country and should not be allowed to grow. These ills have to be eradicated through the nectar of development,” he said. Talking about the issue of corruption which he described as “termite”, the Prime Minister vowed to free the country from this evil “braving all kinds of attacks” on him as he asserted that there is not an allegation of even one paisa worth of corruption against his 15-month-old government. With that, he literally dismissed the claims of corruption made by the Opposition as baseless. “There is a lot of talk in our country about corruption. It is like a sick person giving suggestions to others on how to remain healthy, there are people who are themselves corrupt, who give suggestions on how to deal with corruption,” he said. It doesn’t take a genius to figure who this ‘sick’ person is the political narrative of the country, as Modi sees it. And he didn’t stop that. He reminded the country that he saves his best analogies for the Congress. “Giving suggestions to each other is also an art. I want to give an account today…We have not shown our commitment to fight corruption by addressing press conferences. We are working on the ground. We have shown results,” he said. He said the “termite” had spread but nobody took any action against it over the last 60 years. “There is a requirement of applying injection per square metre for a long time to deal with this termite,” Modi said. Responding to criticism, he said, “Some people love to spread pessimism. It is like an addiction. They cannot get sleep without it. For them, there is no meaning for programmes and initiatives. They keep on saying that nothing is happening, nothing is visible.” Though he did not name anybody, his remarks assume significance as Rahul Gandhi had only last week in Parliament questioned what had been done on dealing with black money. Mentioning the new Act made on black money, he said people have been complaining that it is “too tough” a law. “We have received messages that the law is too tough and it should be diluted,” he said, without naming anybody. He said through the compliance window provided by the government, around Rs 6500 crore of undeclared money has already been disclosed. “Is it not fighting corruption?” Contending that a “new atmosphere of confidence” has emerged, the Prime Minister asserted that “India can be free of corruption” and “steps have to begin from the top”, requiring a lot of efforts. “I am determined to do it,” he said. Talking about steps to deal with corruption and bring about transparency, he mentioned initiatives like Direct Benefit Transfer for LPG, ‘give it up’ campaign for gas subsidy, Jandhan and auction of precious resources like coal, spectrum and radio FM channels. He referred to coal block auction and said the national exchequer will get Rs 3 lakh crore through it. Like we mentioned in our live blog, he used numbers to call out the Opposition and make them look hypocritical. He probably had enough punch in the way of numbers, to help him try distracting the country from allegations of corruption against his government and turn India’s focus on the several crimes of the Congress. As expected, the coal block allocations came up. However, in a very novel way this time. PM Modi said, “When the CAG said that the country had lost Rs 1,74,000 crore due to unfair coal block allocations, I was stumped. I used to talk about it during speeches but I thought, it couldn’t be that much. “However, when we came to power, we were shocked. We immediately ordered the re-auction of coal blocks. The government has made Rs 3 lakh crore from the fair auction of coal blocks this time.” The Prime Minister will be hoping that the country does that math and exonerate his party of the allegations against them maybe. He also talked about auctioning of spectrum for telecom purposes. In this context, he mentioned the auctioning of FM radio channels. “A lot of pressure was put on me. Questions were asked as to why radio channels are being auctioned as they cater to the common people. But I was firm as India wants transparency. Auction inf 80-85 cities has yielded over Rs 1000 crore,” he said. Talking about efforts for financial inclusion of the poor and marginalised people, he said the time-bound implementation of Jandhan scheme announced by him in last Independence Day address saw 17 crore bank accounts being opened with overall deposit of Rs 20,000 crore. “All our programmes and institutions should be helpful to the poor. We have to empower them through financial inclusion,” he said. The entire speech seemed like a clever, elaborate ploy to hold the mirror before the Congress. Or hold up the superficiality of Congress claims before the public. And that too, with little or no questioning, like he could have faced in the Parliament. “Today is not the day for politics, I will speak tomorrow,” Rahul Gandhi, who led the Opposition in the monsoon session of the Parliament, said. After a fairly successful run in the Lok Sabha, Gandhi has to come up with a very strong defence or attack this time. Because the Prime Minister just upped his gameagainst him. (With inputs from PTI)