As India heads into election season, tracking the selective silence of Narendra Modi

File photo of Narendra Modi | Commons

PM Narendra Modi’s recent speeches have been tellingly silent on some of his once-favourite topics.

New Delhi: With a string of elections lined up in key states and the Lok Sabha polls next year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s political speeches, garnished with some of his pet issues, have seen an upsurge in recent months.

And yet, his speeches have been tellingly silent on some of his once-favourite issues and promises. ThePrint tracks the status of some of his pet issues.

Demonetisation

Most conspicuous by its absence in the Modi’s recent speeches is what he once believed was a political masterstroke — demonetisation.

On 8 November, 2016, the Modi government had decided to ban high-value 500 and 1,000 rupee notes, or about 86 per cent of the currency in circulation, in a bid to weed out black money.

The prime minister looked at it as an initiative he could sell to voters as a reflection of his strong leadership skills and intent to clean up the system. Demonetisation featured prominently in Modi’s electioneering before the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections in early 2017. The massive mandate in there gave the party a fillip as far as the issue was concerned.

In his Independence Day speech of 2017, Modi again chose to play it up.

“When demonetisation was announced, the world was surprised. People thought this was the end of Modi. But the way our 125 crore countrymen showed patience and faith, we were able to take one step after another in our drive against corruption,” he said.

A few months later, on the first anniversary of demonetisation in November last year, Modi tweeted: “125 crore Indians fought a decisive battle and won – #AntiBlackMoneyDay”.

During the year-end elections in his home state of Gujarat, Modi did bring up demonetisation, albeit not as frequently as one might expect.

“Those who lost money after demonetisation are complaining,” he said during one election speech.

Gradually, however, as instances of economic losses due to demonetisation, coupled with the GST roll-out, started to tumble out, the government’s enthusiastic mention of the drastic exercise abated.

With it increasingly becoming clear that the process yielded no result, except causing widespread hardship, Modi began to altogether drop its mention from his speeches.

There was no mention of it in his latest Independence Day address.

The model village scheme

The one scheme that had seen a deep personal investment from the Prime Minister was the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY). Modi had announced it in his very first Independence Day speech in 2014 and launched it, with much fanfare, later that year.

Under SAGY, MPs have to adopt a village (gram panchayat being the unit) in their constituencies and use existing resources and their MPLAD funds for all-round development of that village. The target: Every MP was to develop one village by 2016 and two more by 2019.

The scheme, however, due to its structural flaws and in the absence of any allotted budget got a big thumbs down from MPs, including senior BJP leaders and cabinet ministers.

Only 163 of 543 Lok Sabha MPs and 40 of 245 Rajya Sabha MPs have so far adopted villages under Phase III of the initiative — a figure that has been witnessing a steady dip in the successive phases.

While in the initial couple of years, Modi would mention his model village scheme in several speeches with pride, he has now completely stopped doing so.

A clean Ganga

Yet another favourite project of this government was the ‘Clean Ganga’ mission.

The Modi government has even introduced a River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation body as part of the Water Resources Ministry.

In 2014, Modi vowed to clean up the river by 2019. This tied in perfectly well with the BJP’s Hindutva narrative, given that the Ganga is believed to be a holy river.

Goals were set, but goals have not been met. As it stands under this government, the Ganga has still not been cleaned but its mention has most definitely from Modi’s speeches.

Rs 15 lakh in each bank account

This was one oft-repeated, much-touted election promise.

Modi had promised to ensure Rs 15 lakh in each bank account by bringing back black money stashed in foreign banks as part of his 2014 Lok Sabha campaign.

After becoming PM, however, Modi has altogether stopped mentioning it. That, of course, has not stopped the opposition from still bringing it up.

The bullet train

The proposed Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project occupied a place of pride in the PM’s speeches. Launched in September 2017 by Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, this was one of BJP’s proposals to cater to an aspirational India.

The party felt that glitzy initiatives like these, coupled with its pro-welfare policies, would help endear it to a wide cross-section of voters.

Not only would the PM mention it in his speeches, he would also hit out at its critics.

Fund crunch and massive land acquisition issues, however, have put slight brakes on this project, thus reducing its mention in Modi’s addresses.

Uncomfortable policy mentions

The Modi government’s biggest policy volte-face has been its attempts to dilute the 2011 Land Acquisition Act. The BJP and its leadership claimed UPA’s 2011 Act was way too pro-farmer, made acquisition tough and hurt the industry.

Soon after taking over, the BJP government attempted to amend the Act and dilute some of its provisions, bringing in bills and even ordinances to that effect.

Massive opposition protests, however, unnerved the BJP and concerns about it being viewed as a pro-rich, pro-industry government weighed heavy on it.

With Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s “suit-boot ki sarkar” jibe finding traction, the BJP government dropped the issue like a hot potato with none other Modi himself making this clear in his Mann ki Baat radio show.

On the foreign policy front, Balochistan has always been tricky terrain for an Indian Prime Minister.

In his 2016 Independence Day speech, Modi sought to bring back the focus on Balochistan, nearly seven years after an India-Pakistan joint statement mentioned it under the Congress-led UPA, leading to much criticism against then PM Manmohan Singh.

“Today from the ramparts of Red Fort, I want to greet and express my thanks to some people. In the last few days, people of Balochistan, Gilgit, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir have thanked me, have expressed gratitude and good wishes for me,” Modi said in his speech.

An outcry followed, both domestically and from Pakistan. Given the difficult, roller-coaster relationship with Pakistan and the complexity of the issue, PM Modi has refrained from mentioning Balochistan again.

The PM’s current favourites

As he moves on from his former favourites, the PM has a new set of mentions he is partial towards. On the policy front, his government’s welfare initiatives are oft-repeated — from rural housing to Ayushman Bharat, and Saubhagya among others.

Politically, Modi invokes Ambedkar frequently, as part of his party’s efforts to woo backward communities. He talks about how India’s pride on the world stage has been enhanced under his government.

His government’s push for the Triple Talaq bill is another favourite mention.

Taking on the Congress and pointing to its flaws forms the core of many of his recent speeches and the naamdaar versus kaamdaar (the one who has a famous surname versus the one who works) jibe is often thrown at the Congress president.

However, for his party overall, the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam is a hot favourite, invoked across the breadth of the country from Rajasthan to Assam.