Delhi, August 15 – In his first speech from the Red Fort, Modi huffed and puffed and blew the Nehruvian house down – along with its most shining symbol, the Planning Commission. In its place was a new Idea of India.
India as a participatory democracy, with a new people-public partnership, which can accomplish a series of missions: cleanliness, improvement of villages, and changing of the gender mindset.
It was Modi as Guru, Modi as Guide. Chronicling his own journey since May 16, he said how he was an outsider to Delhi, shocked by the walls between government departments. Shocked by a simple diktat like coming to office on time making news. Shocked by the lack of cleanliness.
Modi made several announcements today — the financial inclusion scheme, called the jan-dhan yojana; the make-in-India manufacturing mission with zero defect and zero effect; the skill development mission which would create jobs and job creators; and the adopt-a-village scheme for every MP and every state legislator.
But the most powerful idea today was that of Prime Minister as Prime Motivator. Modi has always been a great performer, his election speeches full of vigour and occasional venom as well.
Today though, he unveiled himself as a motivational speaker, urging society to change, just as the government was changing. If families placed limits on their daughters, they should equally question their sons said Modi, referring to the horrific incidents of violence against women.
If young Indians could make India a digital powerhouse in the world, equally they could make it a manufacturing hub, he said. If we could do one thing for Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary in 2019, it was to make India a litter-free country, he said.
It was a new idea of India — an India where there is no “‘mera kya, mujhe kya”‘. It is an India where toilets for girls matter, where broadband connectivity for every village matters, where rajniti becomes rashtra niti.
All wonderful, but wasn’t it curious that the loudest cheers at the end when he asked everyone to join him in saying Vande Mataram was from the assembled children? Powerful Cabinet ministers and bureaucrats looked on with a mixture of disinterest and perhaps a twinge of unease.
Today he described himself as Pradhan Sevak. He sets high standards, and demands the same from those who work for him — if you work 12 hours, I will work for 13 hours. Modi, the Motivational Speaker, is also a Tough Boss. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, he said.
-INDIA TODAY
