New Delhi: Contrary to expectations in different quarters that Narendra Modi may tone down his brawny political posturing after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fell short of a majority, the prime minister, while delivering his first speech in the 18th Lok Sabha, doubled down on his aggressive rhetoric centred around muscular nationalism, Hindutva, economic reforms and the self-aggrandising projection of his government as a crusader against corruption.
Modi saw to it that his tone and tenor remained one of an undisputed leader, and showed that he isn’t the one to bow down to the reduced mandate.
Crucially, he clubbed all criticisms of his government as “deshvirodhi kshadyantra”, or anti-national conspiracy, and vowed to nip all such conspiracies in the bud, indicating a surefooted continuity in the way his government has cracked down strongly against protestors, dissenters and critics.
“Modi is still strong, his voice is still strong and his determination is also strong. I want to assure all Indian people that Modi is not one to be scared and nor will be his government,” Modi said as he thumped his chest.
Ever since the 2024 Lok Sabha elections reduced the BJP to the 240 mark from 303 seats in 2019, the prime minister has taken care to signal continuity from his side. Most of his ministers remain the same, even as he dismissed all speculation to let Om Birla continue as Lok Sabha speaker.
On Tuesday (July 2), while responding to the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address, Modi increasingly sounded the same, launching a tirade against the Congress, recollecting its failures and villainising the Nehru-Gandhi family, even while delivering rhetorical assurances to sections of the electorate that has shown its unhappiness over issues like unemployment, rising inequality, paper leaks and price rise.
Most of Modi’s former speeches too have been an exercise in chest-thumping and branding various governance schemes, instead of involving any serious engagement with the opposition’s criticisms. The prime minister continued to do so even in his first speech of his third successive tenure.
What changed, however, was the make-up of the Lok Sabha. With the opposition’s numbers much larger than those in the 17th Lok Sabha, the prime minister was not allowed by opposition MPs to speak unilaterally even for a minute. They heckled, hooted and interrupted him with an unforeseen irreverence, even as the helpless speaker tried to stop them.
Slogans of “tanasahi nahi chalegi”, “justice for Manipur”, “Bharat jodo” and even “jhooth bole kauwa kaatey” echoed in the House when the prime minister misleadingly alleged that Rahul Gandhi had termed all Hindus as “violent” in his speech on Monday and even as he put on a pair of headphones to cancel out the disruption.
In his speech, Gandhi said that the BJP, which claimed to be a Hindu party, advocated violence and hatred whereas the Hindu faith only taught non-violence.
What also changed was how the prime minister qualified his government repeatedly as a National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government instead of a BJP government. Not once did Modi name the BJP in his speech, even while recounting his government’s achievements in the last decade.
Like in his former speeches, Modi did not speak about his plans to resolve the sectarian conflict in Manipur, which has been in a state of a limbo for over a year now.
He did not even attempt to address the pertinent concerns about looming unemployment in India and instead assured the youth that his government is taking all the necessary steps to boost foreign investments that could generate both “jobs” and “self-employment” in the future.
Modi also said his government is taking many steps to skill the youth to make them eligible for such jobs.
In his nearly two-hour long speech, Modi ensured that his pet subjects that embolden his government’s message of muscular nationalism, Hindutva and subservience to economic reforms, were adequately addressed.
He began by saying that his government’s first principle has always been “nation first” and will continue to be the same. He attacked the “politics of appeasement” allegedly practiced by the Congress and its allies, and added that India saw the true meaning of secularism only under his regime, where no one community or caste group was favoured over another for votes.
“Tustikaran nahin, santustikaran ke vichaar ko lekar hum chale hai [we are prodding along with the idea of the satisfaction of people, not appeasement],” he said, adding that “saturation coverage” in all his welfare schemes will remain his primary motto.
“Saturation coverage means social justice, which is the true meaning of secularism,” he said, taking a jab at the Congress, which he believed was celebrating its third successive defeat at the hands of the BJP as a “moral victory”.
He repeated his assurance of turning India into a developed nation (viksit Bharat) by 2047 and the world’s third largest economy in his third term. He peppered his speech with terms like “policy paralysis”, “hopelessness” and “scam-ridden” to qualify the Congress governments of the past and compare them with his own record.
However, he stayed clear of being accountable for all the concerns and failures that the opposition has been raising.
As in all his previous speeches, Modi chose the Congress as his central target of attack. “From 2024 onwards, the Congress will be seen as a parasitic party,” he said, while alleging that the grand old party’s improved figure in the Lok Sabha was largely because of the support it received from its regional allies.
He said that the Congress was wiped out in 13 states, but was being economical with the truth as he conveniently hid the fact that even the NDA drew a blank in 12 states and Union territories.
“Wherever the BJP and the Congress were in direct fights, the latter’s strike rate was merely 26%, but where the Congress depended on the support of its allies, its strike rate improved to 50%. A majority of the Congress’s 99 seats came with the help of its allies,” Modi said.
In his patently roundabout way of replying to the opposition’s campaign, Modi said that those who are questioning the government on the issue of ending reservations should remember that the Congress has always been anti-reservation, citing speeches made in a particular historical context by Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.
He alleged that Indira Gandhi ensured that the Dalit leader Babu Jagjivan Ram could not become prime minister after the Emergency. He also said that B.R. Ambedkar was forced to resign from Nehru’s cabinet.
Similarly, he responded to the opposition’s campaign of saving the constitution by taking a dig at the Congress for not abrogating Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, where “the Indian constitution was out of bounds”. He said that the Congress’s campaign was merely deception.
He also replied to the opposition’s criticism of the Agnipath scheme for temporary recruitment in the armed forces. The prime minister said that India has become a country that can now “enter other nations to attack them (ghar mein ghus ke maarta hai), “does surgical and air strikes on enemy states” and has the capability to show the masterminds of terror their due place.
“In our third term, we will speed up our goals by three times. Our third term will mean three times the speed of development,” Modi said.
Modi repeatedly mocked the opposition for claiming that the general election’s outcome was a “moral victory” for the anti-BJP parties. He spoke about the assembly elections in Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, where the NDA won, and also recalled the comprehensive BJP victories in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan six months ago, while claiming that his party’s vote share has increased drastically in states where it had no footprint.
“It is for the first time in the Congress’s history that it could not cross the 100 figure mark in elections,” Modi said. “It is their third biggest defeat, their third worst performance,” he said.
However, while doing so, Modi indicated that he will brook any criticism, as he gave a “warning” to all those in the Congress and its “ecosystem” to stop its “conspiracy” to pull down India from its onward path to progress.
He urged the Lok Sabha speaker and the Supreme Court to punish such forces, while calling on the Indian people to “remain alert” from them.
Modi accused the “Congress ecosystem” of spreading “arajakta” or anarchy by “dividing” the people along caste, community and linguistic lines, and creating fear among people by spreading rumours and untruths. He alleged that the Congress supported “separatist” elements.
He said that such a campaign by the Congress and its “ecosystem” should not be considered naive, but part of a well-considered conspiracy against India’s progress.
Modi reasserted his Hindutva leanings by holding the Hindu faith singularly responsible for protecting India’s diversity and its history of coexistence and tolerance. The prime minister extrapolated Gandhi’s criticism of the BJP to allege that the Congress leader spoke about the destruction of Hindus.
“It was said that Hindus were inherently violent … The whole ecosystem is systematically conspiring to denounce Hindu tradition, Hindu gods and goddesses, Hindu society and its heritage. Insulting Hindus has become fashionable for the ecosystem … The Hindu society has to reflect on whether such insulting remarks against Hinduism are merely coincidental or the beginning of a planned conspiracy,” Modi said.
Crucially, he immediately segued his criticism of the Congress to allege that the ecosystem was also planning to prevent any strengthening of the Indian armed forces. “In the last ten years, our armed forces have been made a war-ready force. The Congress had prevented our forces from gaining any power. It can’t tolerate our armed forces getting stronger,” Modi said.
“It is clearly a conspiracy. We need to ask why the ecosystem wants our armed forces to become weaker. Is it acting at someone’s behest? The lies that the Congress is propagating against our soldiers and armed forces are merely a deception to keep the armed forces weak,” Modi alleged.
“Some people in India are conspiring to strengthen anti-India forces. Indians need to remain alert. I want to give a warning to this ecosystem that those who prevent our nation’s progress will be dealt with in their own language,” Modi said, adding that he won’t compromise on questions of national security, come what may.
Modi may be weakened, but his posturing in the Lok Sabha signals a rigid continuity in his government’s authoritarian impulses.
