I-Day Speech: Modi Puts Out Markers For You To Judge “Achche Din”

The Prime Minister’s third I-Day speech marks a subtle shift in gears from the tone and tenor of this earlier ones from the Red Fort. If the previous two speeches were about emphasising intent and sincerity, this one was about delivery. If the earlier orations were more triumphalist in content, thanks to memories of a robust 2014 mandate, this one takes aim at positioning Narendra Modi and his government for the next test in 2019.

If the attempt earlier was to announce new initiatives, this one was about putting out subtle markers for people to associate Modi with future positive outcomes on the “achche din” monitor. The PM knows that he rates much higher than his party, and hence the outcome of 2019 depends on how they rate his performance.

Modi is also conscious of the fact that the previous NDA lost because the economic turnaround achieved in the last year of its tenure was not felt by the people at large. Hence the shock defeat for Atal Behari Vajpayee. Modi’s speech, coming roughly at the mid-point of his government, is squarely aimed at ensuring that most people feel at least some mild breeze of change over the next two years. A real change that isn’t felt for at least a year or two before elections will be dismissed as one of those fortuitous things that happen to every government.

In the process of trying to link the benefits of his schemes to effects that they can feel themselves, Modi became the first Prime Minister to connect the dots linking economic reforms to the aam aadmi rather than just business. Reform acquired a bad connotation in all previous governments because it was seen as oriented towards the rich; Modi has broken this trend.

From the middle classes to the aspiring classes and the underclass, Modi put out markers for them to identify with.

He talked of changing the attitude of the taxmen and speeding up passport deliveries, both important issues for the upwardly mobile classes. So the next time you get a tax refund quickly, or the passport arrives within weeks rather than months, you know Modi may have done some good.

He talked about eliminating group interviews for C and D category jobs in government; and so the next few thousand young people who get in through this route without “sifarish” will attribute this change to Modi.

He talked about providing four crore new LPG connections in just over a year, hoping he will receive the blessings of the beneficiaries; he talked of giving five crore poor women subsidised LPG connections under the Ujjwala scheme in the remaining three years before 2019. As the scheme is implemented, the government’s positive touch points on change will increase.

Politics was never far from his mind, as he subtly wove tales around things being done for Uttar Pradesh. He talked of electricity reaching a village (Nagla Phatela) in Hathras, just three hours from Delhi. He talked about 95 percent of sugarcane farmers getting their dues in full, just months before next year’s assembly elections.

He talked of making 77 crore LED bulbs costing Rs 350 each at a price of Rs 50 (13 crore already done), in the hope that whenever anyone lights a bulb, he will be credited for it – and the lower electricity bills.

Modi made a throwaway reference to the contributions of previous governments, but essentially contrasted his speed of implementation with those of his predecessors: he cocked a snook at the UPA for linking only four crore Aadhaar numbers to benefits when he managed to link 70 crore. Online railway ticketing was not his creation, but Modi claimed the speeding up of the IRCTC ticketing process as his work.

He made similar points about the speed of rollout of the Jan Dhan banking scheme (which he can claim credit for); the conversion of the post office into a payments bank, thus potentially reaching out to nearly 1.5 lakh cities and towns and villages; the creation of 3,500 km of new railway track in two years (versus 1,500 over the previous 10 years); the building of 100 km of rural roads daily (against 70-75 earlier); the speed of electrifying rural villages (10,000 of 18,000 villages not yet touched by electricity); and the creation of toilets in villages to make them open defecation-free.

The point is obvious: having presented himself as the Superman who can set things done right through hard work, these markers were intended to show he has delivered.

Not that he left the corporate sector out of his ministrations; he took credit for speeding up the time taken for corporate registrations from weeks to just a day; for the Goods and Services Tax (GST), which will unify the indirect tax regime with the ultimate goal of creating a one-nation-one-tax framework; the e-mandi, which will allow farmers to access prices from multiple markets; and for defreezing 270 projects worth Rs 10 lakh crore that were stuck in the works.

Equally important was Modi’s social messaging, made in the context of the recent uproar over attacks on Dalits by “gau rakshaks”. He called for social unity. He did well to emphasise that social injustices had to be taken head on and hinted that he was willing to take a stand on this issue.

Another important message was the hardening of his stand on Pakistan. Faced with concerted efforts by the Pakistani state to sponsor terror in Kashmir, he upped the ante by repeating his support for those agitating for human rights in Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Given the rising crescendo of protests in these regions, this support for human rights in Pakistani-controlled geography punctures the validity of pro-Pakistani cries raised in Kashmir Valley. This message will resound on both sides of the border.

We have entered a new phase in Indo-Pakistani ties where the earlier velvet glove is being strengthened by the iron fist, with smiles being replaced with bared teeth. Having proved his peaceful credentials despite domestic criticism, Modi has made his point on the world stage. Now, Pakistan will find it difficult to internationalise Kashmir, even as the world loses its appetite for self-determination as a solution to internal inter-ethnic problems.

In multiple ways, I-Day 2016 should be seen as Modi’s first speech in the run-up to 2019.