Over the years Independence Day speeches have become an unstated reflection of the nation’s leaders, their mindset and their vision for India.

A practice that began on 16 August 1947, with erstwhile prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru addressing the nation from the Red Fort, has, 75 years later, become a tradition followed each year. In fact, for every Prime Minister of India – the address on Independence Day from the Red Fort is by far, the most important.

In his recent address from the Red Fort, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared his vision with the people as India celebrated 75 years of her independence from the British – he mentioned that we, as a people and as a nation had prevailed despite the many challenges we faced. Of course, true to his reputation, PM Modi also gave us all a vision of a future along with an unambiguous roadmap that every Indian - of every age, of every caste, creed, colour or gender - could use to help the nation achieve it.

But, on the subject of Independence Day speeches the more important questions are:

Was this always the case?

Was such a clear roadmap always laid out from the Red Fort every Independence Day?

Were our prime ministers always so in tune with the aspirations and dreams of the nation?

Dejection instead of Inspiration

For India’s much-feted first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru – ambiguity and denial were oft-utilised tools to deflect important issues.

For example – in 1949, rather than give a concrete map of how the newly independent India will tackle the problem of food shortage, Nehru blamed the people! Yes, it is true. He said, “Those who waste food by organising feasts just to show off, they are doing a crime against the country. What could be more useless than someone among you or among us organizes a feast and wastes food at a time when some people are going hungry. We have to tighten our belts….”

Imagine, being filled with patriotism and hope for a free India and hearing the prime minister blame the people for food shortage.

Now imagine putting in all your efforts at work, doing every task above our duty to ensure that India progresses and then making your way to the Red Fort in 1959. But the leader then compares you to the peoples of other nations only to say that “In India, we haven’t had the habit of working hard generally. It's not our fault, these things can happen.”

On the other hand, every individual is instantly inspired and respectful of their fellow citizens when they hear the prime minister say “We need to bow before his [poor] innate strength to face adversities and help in eliminating the challenges of his daily life.” Of course, this was Prime Minister Modi during his Independence Day address in 2019.

But to blame only Nehru for having inspired dejection would not be correct since Indira Gandhi as prime minister had repeated a similar sentiment when she said “Even if we stop a lot of unnecessary expenses, if people keep buying unnecessary things even at higher prices”, it is to ill effect. Ms. Gandhi had even said that “sometimes, it seems that the entire nation has adopted a defeatist attitude.” Her son went as far as to imply that India had, until his Independence Day address in 1988 gone to “others with a begging-bowl”.

On the other hand, speaking about India’s efforts to fight the pandemic, Prime Minister Modi had said, “We are not only able to meet our own requirements but now also become strong enough to export to the world. We can very well see how a self-reliant India can help the world”.

Even the most unbiased reader can see the difference between sowing the seeds of dejection and inspiring citizens by reaffirming the trust in our abilities.

No concrete solutions

Recently, the issue of price-rise has been forced into pertinence by the Congress party. To put aside the inherent flaws in their argument, the fact that it ran amok throughout India’s history becomes relevant here; vague statements made by former prime ministers more so.

Right from Jawaharlal Nehru who said, “…it isn’t in our total control yet but we will control it”, to Indira Gandhi who urged “our other brothers and sisters grow vegetables in pots and cans if they have no land”, all the way to Manmohan Singh who even shifted the blame onto India’s farmers, our annadatas for selling at higher prices in order to increase incomes – over half-a-century of no concrete steps, over half-a-century of blaming others. Moreover, Indira Gandhi, in 1974 actually called upon the people to accept the suffering “We may have to modify our habits, change traditional ways and may also have to suffer a bit”.

On the other hand, when it comes to Prime Minister Modi, he has always - including the most recent Independence speech – given a clear roadmap when it comes to moving ahead.

In 2021, on India’s 75^th Independence day Prime Minister Modi mentioned the manner in which the poor were helped, he also showed us the path to increasing production. “The way India has kept the stoves burning in the poor households by providing free food grains to 80 crore countrymen continuously for months during the pandemic is not only astonishing to the world but also a matter of discussion”. He then called upon scientific interventions in agriculture to increase “the production of fruits, vegetables and grains along with giving food security to the country. Thus, we shall catapult ourselves strongly into the world orbit”.

Reinforcing trust v/s baseless allegations

An indisputable fact about every Narendra Modi-led administration is its commitment to ensure people’s welfare. By prioritizing development, progress and security, agendas like political mileage and criticizing the opposition take a back seat – if at all.

Consider the statements that Nehru made about a government, that he himself was leading “This is how the government functions, slowly.”

Now consider what Indira Gandhi said in justification of an Emergency she herself had unilaterally imposed “We should use the opportunity to cleanse the political, economic and other aspects of national life, and bring some charm and freshness to it”. Does this not imply that these spheres were dirty to begin with?

Then there is of course, Manmohan Singh, who for all his neutrality, mentioned only INC leaders like Nehru, Indira, Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi in his speeches not only in 2008, but also in 2009. In his defence, he merely followed Rajiv Gandhi’s template from 1988.

But yet again, what differs here is the mindset. For both BJP prime ministers India has seen, bipartisanship was a necessity for holistic growth. First, Atal Bihari Vajpayee credited Indira Gandhi for what can be called the biggest achievement of his era i.e., the nuclear tests in Pokhran. Secondly, Prime Minister Modi in his first address credited all former prime ministers for having helped India grow, in the same speech he had shown faith and trust in the capabilities of the bureaucracy to reform and perform – rather than ostracising and/or blaming them.

The differences have never been clearer, the reasons have never been more evident. India, a nation of over a billion, needs a leader that understands the people and has risen from amongst them.

The elitist idea that a leader is somehow better than the people, must now be restricted to pages of our nation’s brutal colonial history from whence it spawned. This is perhaps why Prime Minister Modi chose to include the need to discard every speck of colonial mindset as we resolve to become a developed nation by 2047.

The writer is the national head of BJP’s information and technology department. He tweets as @amitmalviya.