By Apoorvanand
Listening to Narendra Modi’s speeches is nothing less than a trial. And an ordeal. How can anyone endure nearly two hours of such tedium, a speech full of falsehood, empty boasts, puffed-up bravado that – most pernicious of all – is saturated with the poison of hatred?
But why are these speeches delivered with such audacity, repeated for 11 years? If they continue, and the speaker thinks that there are people ready to receive them, the responsibility lies not only with the speaker but even more so with those who keep listening to such demagoguery.
For, in truth, it is we who have allowed this. We have sustained – and re-elected, not once but twice, this man as our prime minister for over a decade. We have done so fully aware that his only mastery lies in one trade: the trade of hate.
Perhaps we tolerate Modi’s bluster, his swagger, his lies, because behind all of it lies a single undiluted truth that we love and want: this hatred.
In the official press release that followed his speech, the Prime Minister’s Office spoke of fortifying our defences with an expanded security envelope, of fostering strategic sectors, of repeating the mantra of an ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ in technology and industry. Youth and entrepreneurs were urged to embrace swadeshi.
All this is stale stuff. Those fortunate enough to secure employment in the private sector were promised Rs 15,000 – a sum intended to absolve the government of its fundamental responsibility to provide work. It is now for you to secure work, and if you are lucky enough, then the government rewards you with a paltry sum of Rs 15,000.
But the central point of the speech was Operation Sindoor and a demographic task force. Operation Sindoor was presented as a watershed moment in the history of independent India, a new normal in the war against terrorism. Or against Pakistan.
And yet, we know that respected security experts have called it a costly and pointless folly. India failed to mobilise support for this foolhardiness even after spreading scores of MPs across the world. It left India looking pitiable. Defence experts warned that calling this “new normal” a doctrine was not bold – it was dangerous. What he is promising to his constituents is a continuous war. Only that will keep them enthralled.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.