Word's worth: Looking at evolution of PM Modi through his 10 I-Day speeches

On August 15, 2014, in his first Independence Day address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced himself to the people as a “boy from a small-town poor family”, an outsider to Delhi’s elite circles, someone they should think of not as the country’s prime minister but its “pradhan sevak”, the prime servant. 

Modi was then less than 100 days into his new job. Ten Independence Day speeches later, with Parliament elections looming next year, much has changed.

In 2018, in his fifth address from the Red Fort, the last of his first term as prime minister, Modi felt the need to furnish his report card, spending substantial time on the speed with which his government had implemented schemes, which he termed a paradigm shift from 2013.

But on Tuesday, delivering his 10th Independence Day address, the last of his second term as prime minister, Modi said the current period of “reform, perform and transform”, a phrase he first used in the 2016 speech, would strengthen the foundation of the coming thousand years, and promised to list the government’s achievements “next time on August 15, from this very Red Fort”, suggesting the results of next year’s elections were a foregone conclusion.

In 2014, with his predecessor, Manmohan Singh, in the audience, Modi acknowledged the contribution of all former prime ministers and governments to India’s progress. He urged all to observe a moratorium on casteism, communalism, regionalism and all such activities for 10 years. 

He said his government would advance by forging consensus, not “by virtue of majority”.This year, the prime minister talked about how “Modi ensured” the construction of the new Parliament building, “Modi’s personal commitment” to fight corruption, and “Modi’s guarantee” that India will be a top three economy in the world. He thanked the people for voting to form stable governments in 2014 and 2019, which, he said, gave “Modi the courage” to unleash a period of “reform, perform, transform”.

In 2019, after winning his second term, Modi said on Independence Day that “neither Modi nor friends of Modi” had contested the election, but 1.3 billion of his countrymen had.

In the nine years and 90 days since May 16, 2014, when he led the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to a historic win, Modi’s Independence Day speeches have been watched keenly for new schemes and directions. In 2014, he spoke of Jan Dhan, Clean India, Digital India, Make in India, and abolition of the Planning Commission. Jal Jeevan Mission was in the first speech of his second term in 2019. In 2017, he listed the benefits of demonetisation.

That is not all, though. At times, Modi has dropped ticking time bombs in his speeches. He mentioned the scourge of the triple talaq for the first time in his 2017 speech, which his government criminalised after returning to power in 2019, the year Modi bared his “worry about population explosion”. 

The government is yet to move on the population issue. The prime minister has also set goals for his government and collective ones for the people in his speeches, sometimes shifting the goalposts.

In 2017, Modi spoke of building a “new India” by 2022, the 75th anniversary of its independence. Quoting scriptures, he said, “If we don’t accomplish work within a stipulated time, we shall not be able to get the desired results.”

Four years later, in 2021, he spoke of an Amrit Kaal spanning 25 years, building a developed India the year the country celebrates its 100th Independence Day in 2047.

In 2014, the PM gave the slogan of “sabka saath, sabka vikas”, to which he added “sabka vishwas” five years later, and “sabka prayas” in 2021. In 2016, he promised doubling farmer’s incomes by 2022. In 2019, he announced a “dream” target of building a $5 trillion economy in the next five years.

Some other themes have survived from his early August 15 speeches. On Tuesday, he recounted the humble-origins story of 2014, and emphasised his campaign against the corruption and appeasement politics of dynastic parties.

Addressing the people as “my beloved family members”, the PM pledged his commitment to work for his “family of 1.4 billion Indians” since he came from among them. He was consistent in addressing his “1.25 billion fellow Indians” from 2014 to 2018, which changed to “1.3 billion” in 2019, and to “my beloved 1.4 billion family members” this year, trusting population increase estimates in the absence of Census figures.

Other themes remain unchanged: women’s empowerment, India’s demographic advantage, the contribution of smaller towns and cities to India’s startup ecosystem. Several of his Independence Day speeches highlighted the infrastructure growth in the Northeast and his government’s efforts to control inflation.

On Tuesday, echoing 2014, he said “we must give a new twist to our cleanliness campaign and cleanse our system of corruption.” Is this another ticking time bomb?