The speech Manmohan Singh won't make on August 15

Dear citizens, 1. I greet you on the 64th anniversary of our independence. This will be an address unlike any that you have heard from the Red Fort on previous anniversaries of India’s independence. 2. It is traditional, in Independence Days speeches, to highlight all the positive developments in our country in the year gone by. This is a time, however, to depart from this practice. Queen Elizabeth II, after a particularly bad year for British royalty, courageously said, “1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure. In the words of one of my more sympathetic correspondents, it has turned out to be an Annus Horribilis .” There are times when one must acknowledge that all is not well, and Queen Elizabeth did so in 1992. I am doing so now – the past year has been India’s Annus Horriblis. 3. I choose, this year, to list all the ills of the country and share with you concrete plans to alleviate them. I will make no vague, soothing pronouncements which do little to make the country stronger and make citizens happier and more prosperous. 4. If there is a single word which dominated conversations last year, that word is ‘corruption’. Corruption has reached gargantuan proportions, to a point that it has seriously begun to impede the nation’s development, reputation and future. We have seen shameful corruption at the Centre and in the states, at the highest levels and the lowest. Corruption cannot go on unchecked and I have decided that the time to act decisively on this is NOW. 5. While I do not agree with all of Anna Hazare’s demands, I do agree with him that a Lokpal Bill is an overdue necessity. After serious consideration, I have come to the conclusion that an anti-corruption law must be like all other laws of our land: all men must be equal. If all men are equal, then the Prime Minister, too, should come under the ambit of the Lokpal Bill. Today, I have instructed my colleague Kapil Sibal to make changes in the Bill which will be tabled before the houses of Parliament increasing the scope to include the Prime Minister. [caption id=“attachment_59663” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“When will the PM address the biggest problem of corruption that the nation faces? Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters”] [/caption] 6. The passing of the Lokpal Bill will be my foremost priority for the next few months. I must admit that there have been political compulsions which have prevented my agreeing to a Lokpal Bill much weaker than the one presented by Anna Hazare and his team. I have, for too long, blamed the compulsions of politics and the imperatives of a coalition government, for sins of omission and commission. If the nation had a strong Lokpal Bill, we would not have had the Annus Horribilis that we have experienced. I commit myself, therefore, not just to a Lokpal Bill, but to a strong Lokpal Bill. Anna Hazare has announced a rally and a fast beginning tomorrow in his fight for such a Bill. A confrontation between Anna’s team and the political class of the country is the last thing all of you, India’s citizens, need. I have, therefore, called Anna and scheduled a meeting with him for later today. I will do my utmost to bridge the gap between his version and the government version. My aim is to bridge the gap to the extent that Anna feels no need to table a second version of the Bill. I also commit that all MPs from my party will vote for the version of the Bill that Anna and I, hopefully, agree to. 7. In 2010 India was ranked 87th out of 178 countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index . It is this rank that I would ask all citizens to keep an eye on as a demonstrable certificate that we are truly on our way to eradicating corruption in the country. The Lokpal Bill will be a first step, but there are many more that must be taken simultaneously. I will start with my own party. I am setting up a committee comprising eminent Indians such as Azim Premji, Anand Mahindra, NR Naryayanamurthy and others to draft a set of criteria for any Congress candidate seeking a ticket for any election in the country, be it a panchayat poll or a seat in the Lok Sabha. I commit to setting up this committee by the end of August, and I will request the committee to submit their recommendations by the end of September — and I will accept these recommendations in toto. From that day on, this will be the only tool in the selection of candidates. 8. Before we ask prospective candidates to conform to these criteria, we need to ensure that existing legislators and parliamentarians meet these criteria as well. I am requesting bodies such as AGNI and Praja to go through all my party’s elected representatives with a fine-toothed comb and submit, to me, a list of those, in their opinion, unfit to hold a position of responsibility. I commit to removing all on this list from the positions that they occupy – and expelling them from the Congress party. I am targeting completing the exercise by December 31, 2011. I would sincerely urge my colleagues in other political parties to join in this fight. Corruption is not a disease that afflicts only the Congress party; all political parties in India suffer from the malaise. Continues on the next page 9. I hope the steps outlined above both punish and deter the corrupt. In addition, I hope it sends a signal to all those who are honest that they, too, can enter politics and win elections. 10. The fight against corruption will be long and hard, and I look forward to the support of all citizens of India in this battle. 11. I now move on to another area of serious concern to citizens of India: safety and security. The country has been beset by acts of terrorism, by riots, by uprisings in some areas by the disenchanted. Not enough has been done to address these issues, and my second priority will be in this area. While diplomatic efforts will continue and heighten as far as terror emanating from outside our shores is concerned, we must try and eradicate all such acts that are ‘home-grown’. I propose to do the following: List all the areas of domestic unrest, be it the vexed issues of Jammu and Kashmir, or the Maoist and Naxal uprisings in pockets of the country and the instability in some parts of the north east. Rather than create teams of interlocutors who travel to the trouble torn areas, spend a few days there and return, I am going to create as many teams of interlocutors as there are problems that have been identified. The teams will go the troubled area, engage with the stakeholders of the conflict, and remain there to negotiate till a solution acceptable to all has been found. The experience in Northern Ireland has shown that complex problems can be solved by fair negotiations – suppressing dissatisfaction by brute power, history teaches us, does not solve the problem, but just makes it disappear for a while. This exercise begins immediately and will be a continuous process. Simultaneously, I propose to call an all-party meeting to discuss, in a bi-partisan atmosphere, the issue of police reforms. The police must be depoliticised as soon as possible; an efficient, confident police force will do the job of keeping us secure. The Lokpal Bill will aid in breaking the criminal-police-politician nexus; bringing in police reforms at the same time will cleanse the system and motivate police forces to focus on the tasks at hand. I am proposing to begin this exercise immediately, with the target date for approving of the Police reforms set at December 31, 2011. [caption id=“attachment_59673” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“How much longer will it be before we become a country that has improved significantly on the corruption index, that is genuinely safer and more peaceful, and that does not worry about the most basic of needs: food. Reuters”] [/caption] 12. Along with the Lokpal Bill and the proposed police reforms, there is an immediate need for judicial reforms as well. Those who are guilty must be brought to book and punished as quickly as possible; cases must be completed efficiently so that innocent accused do not languish in jails as under trial prisoners. I commit to forming an all-party committee to discuss the reforms needed and table a bill on Judicial Reforms in the next budget session of Parliament. 13. I move now onto another area I propose to put my energies into: food. The last year has witnessed food inflation rising to dizzying levels, with even onions reaching a price of Rs 70 per kilo for a brief while. For a country like India and the size of population below the poverty line, this is unacceptable. On the one hand, people are struggling for food, on the other hand, food grain is rotting because of a lack of storage. The country needs to immediately increase storage facilities. I am setting up a ‘food task force’ which will comprise successful, reputed professional managers with an unimpeachable track record. I will ask them to look into the entire issue of food, the distribution of food, supply chain, storage and the land under agriculture and submit their recommendations by the end of next year. I will ask them to make the issue of storage a priority; my government will immediately make funds available for such use. Simultaneously, we will deal with hoarders and profiteers with a firm hand and deliver speedy justice. I would request all colleagues from other political parties to co-operate in this effort in the states which are not ruled by the Congress. Our growing population means that the demand for food will continue to increase year by year. We must find a way to increase the amount of land under agriculture and incentivise citizens into involving themselves in this important industry. The same task force will recommend actions that need to be taken. 14. There are many other problems that we need to tackle, such as the land policy, the budget deficit, education, infrastructure, health, sanitation, water, power, and so on. In most of these areas, there is already a lot of work which is in progress – what I will do is to ask ministers and bureaucrats to increase their commitment and efficiency to see that the steps and decisions that need to be taken are done so in a time-bound manner. 15. These are the commitments that I make to you today. I will speak to the nation, once a month, and keep all of you informed on the progress made under each head. I am confident, when I address you on the next Independence Day, I will be addressing a country that has improved significantly on the corruption index, that is genuinely safer and more peaceful, and that does not worry about the most basic of needs: food. Last year, I had said from this very podium: “Our future is bright. The day when our dreams will come true is not far off. Let us all resolve on this anniversary of our independence that we will keep the flag of our nation flying high. Let us march ahead together on the path of progress and prosperity.” This year, I say it again, with much more confidence and commitment. Jai Hind