The Independence Day speech of
the Prime Minister is meant to charge patriotic fervor, reinstill pride in
India, reiterate Govt's commitment to every Indian, inspire hope and strengthen
confidence. Prime Minister Modi, through his speech today on “Ek Bharat, Shresth Bharat” from the
ramparts of the Red Fort after unfurling the tricolour roused people's hope and
expectations and promised the true freedoms that have eluded us for more than
68 years. He works 24×7 nonstop for the nation
and the Independence day speech conveys his vision for this nation and its 125
cr citizens. In his speech today the “will power” to perform by his Govt. is
clearly visible unlike previous regimes. Modi’s message is simple,
powerful and has the road map to change the fate of the nation. Thus he said
today that his Govt. has adopted the mantra of 'Reform, Perform and Transform'
to make a new India and has avoided populism. He has
also put the onus on the 125 Cr people of India to convert our 'Swaraj' into
'Surajya'. He has reminded that for this to happen “from Parliament to
Panchayats, Gram Pradhans to the Prime Minister, everyone has to fulfil their responsibilities”.
After 70 years of Independence, the nation has changed. There was a time when
the Govt. was surrounded by allegations, but now the Govt. is surrounded by
expectations. Now the people don’t get satisfied by a mere declaration of
policy or plan but they expect to see the changes on grassroots. Hence he said
“today, more than 'Karya', I want to talk about 'Karya Sanskriti' of the Govt.”.
He also
reiterated his Govt.’s commitment and said his Govt. doesn’t do anything in
bits and pieces but has an integrated approach to its work. PM Modi
said Swarajya is about empowering citizens and improving their quality of life
and that his Govt. was committed to bring that change to every citizen of the
country. Talking about social tension, Modi said India’s unity is in diversity
and this is our strength. “Social justice is the basis to attain this goal,” he
said. “Only financial growth is not important, social unity is also important”.
125 Cr people of India are part of one family”, Modi said. He said “a nation
which is divided because of reasons like caste and religion can’t achieve great
things. Great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Ambedkar and saints like
Ramanajunacharya have stressed on the need for social unity. We all will have
to rise above the age old evils in our society to achieve the goal of a robust and successful India”.
His speech had a strong
message about how his government was promoting transparency in governance. The
Prime Minister highlighted a lot of measures his Govt. has taken over the past
couple of years to transform the life of its citizens. There have been a lot of administrative reforms during the present Govt’s
little more than 2 years term. It is a silent revolution. Almost every village, every town and every
citizen’s life is being transformed to make our nation a progressive,
prosperous and strong world power. If we want to prosper, if we want to see
more money in our pockets, we have to work hard for it. What Modi as PM is
striving to do is to make it easier for people to interact with Govt.
departments so that we are not hassled, reduce corruption, make processes
simpler & streamlined to improve the quality of Govt. services to make it
easier & transparent for individuals, entrepreneurs and even foreign
companies to set up their businesses in India, improve skills of young people of our country
so that people here can get more & better opportunities for employment and
earning thereby improve quality of life. This Govt. is also making the people
of the nation aware that we have to keep our cities, villages and homes clean.
Prime Minister Modi also sent
a strong message to the forces inimical to India that this nation won’t yield
to terrorism, extremism & aggression on its integrity & sovereignty and
give befitting & disproportionate reply. He also appealed to the misguided
youths to shun violence and return to mainstream. Continuing from his recent
assertion in Parliament that there won’t be any compromise on India’s security
& integrity and that Pak Occupied Kashmir (PoK) is rightfully ours and it’s
the only issue to be settled with Pakistan, he reiterated our commitment to the
people of Gilgit, Balochistan and PoK to take their voices & struggle to
the international forums. This is the first time ever that an Indian Prime
Minister boldly and openly asserted our claim on PoK and also committed to
support the cause of independent Balochistan. For decades since Independence, India
has historically and inexplicably let Pakistan run away with the Kashmir
narrative. Pakistan has forced 3 battles on us over Kashmir issue and lost all
3. But still managed to set the terms despite being the vanquished. And as victors,
all that successive Indian Govts did was to adopt a defensive posture. While we
have always tended to ignore, even play down our legal claim over PoK, Pakistan
has never failed to claim its writ on the area on our side of LoC through
diplomatic, overt and covert means. Modi Govt since coming to power has made
Pakistan realize that it’s a different Indian Govt. who would not hesitate to
adopt any means to inflict heavy causality on its enemy diplomatically and
militarily. The uprising we see today in PoK and Balochistan are surely results
of Modi Govt’s covert tactical warfare.
Narendra Modi is a committed and
hardworking Prime Minister with a clear vision. First time since independence,
we have a transparent and responsive Govt., who instead of governing through
populism and leap service is working on a road map to transform India into a
“Shresth Bharat” with all round development. Modi is trying to
bridge the difference between the essence and practice of democracy. He is
striving to take the people as stake-holders in nation building and the Govt.
to act as a catalyst. Govt. can’t change
the nation alone. It is the people who must bring about real change. The Govt.
needs to empower the citizens and institutionalise ideas. Modi as Prime
Minister has given democracy a perspective which has long remained unattended
by subsequent Congress regimes since we became a free country. While the
Congress-led UPA never tired of providing people their rights (which they were
entitled to Constitutionally anyway), Modi made the Govt. machinery realize its
responsibilities and accountability. The Constitution of India guarantees
citizens a number of rights but what the people need from the Govt. is not
rights but action. A true democracy is a collaboration between the citizens and
the Govt. In a real democracy, the Govt. has to take people into confidence to
make it a combined effort. The spirit of people’s participation is what made
India a free country. Similarly, for the nation’s development, there needs to
be a mass movement. Till the leader of the nation, look at development through
the prism of vote bank politics and treat its citizens as mere vote bank, real all round development can’t happen. Modi
is working to change the politics and governance of our nation from vote bank
to development. Modi rightly says
that we need freedom from the status quoist mindset. Modi’s mantra for
governance is that “only new thoughts can bring in change - development will
take place when there is an urge to go ahead to implement new ideas despite all
the impediments on the way. Development is the panacea to all the problems
afflicting the country”. He has correctly identified that in India, the problem
with governance and the resultant growth in economic and social parameters, is a dearth of thoughtful & innovative ideas
and a lack of effective & quick implementation. Modi has proved that he has
the ability to innovate and ensure effective implementation and good
governance.
No comments:
Post a Comment