PM's I-Day speech was undercut by hyperbole

Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke for 90 minutes from the Red Fort to mark our 70th Independence Day on Monday, but much of it was his trademark dressing up of government programmes in bright colours. Toward the end, however, he deviated massively from the humdrum when he reminded Pakistan of human rights violations and suppression of political rights in Balochistan, Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir (PoK) and Gilgit-Baltistan, and said that people from these regions had publicly thanked him for raising their concerns.

While references to PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan — which are parts of the pre-1947 princely state of Jammu and Kashmir — have been made earlier from the highest levels, Balochistan was a surprise, and experts are bound to wonder whether this wouldn’t make Pakistan’s false campaign that India was abetting terrorism in Balochistan, even more shrill. These mentions were not without irony. Even as the PM was addressing the nation, for the first time in decades, armed militants engaged in guerrilla-style firing on the CRPF at Nowhatta, a locality of old Srinagar. An officer has been killed and nine force personnel injured. And right after Mr Modi finished speaking, J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti arraigned the Centre for the Valley’s troubles and for creating tensions after she raised the national flag in Srinagar.

The politics of things appears completely out of kilter as in his speech Mr Modi said little that might be construed to be intended to assuage feelings in the Kashmir Valley where a large number of people have been killed and injured in firing by the security forces in response to stone-pelting by the populace. In his speech, the PM did not address the unconscionable violence against dalits in his home state of Gujarat, and elsewhere in the country, of which there has been a spurt lately. His silence in the face of attacks against the minorities has also been noteworthy.

But on the Independence Day, he dilated on the need for social and communal harmony, which he said was an age-old tradition of India. Even as he did so, in Gujarat, thousands of dalits drawn from across India marched from the state capital Ahmedabad to Una near the coast, where dalits were flogged by cow vigilantes for skinning dead cattle last month. The PM spoke about legal reform, but after the Red Fort speech, the Chief Justice of India said he was “disappointed” as he had hoped to hear the PM say something about raising judicial strength in the country to ensure timely delivery of justice.