Speeches made on Independence Day are rarely remembered on the morrow. That is in part because most of our national leaders have not mastered the art of formal oratory. Atal Behari Vajpayee, for instance, could be electrifying at an election rally, but he was mostly a bore when he reached the Red Fort. In part, it is because I-Day speeches tend to be written with the intention of touching all the right buttons politically (promise something for farmers, women, armed forces, minorities and the like, mention good relations with neighbours, and so on), not to move the audience that is physically present and the much larger one watching on television. Rarely is there a telling anecdote or story—among Dr Manmohan Singh’s few personal touches in an earlier speech was his recounting of how, for the first 10 years of his life, he lived in a village that had no electricity, no running water, no doctor, no telephone, no roads and no school; how he had to walk a long distance to school, and study at night by the dim light of a kerosene lamp. Finally, speeches are rarely written with headline-writers in mind, so that no catch phrase hits the national consciousness. The fact is that, especially when you are dealing with 1.2 billion people, effective communication on an important occasion becomes a vital skill that must be mastered and then used.
What is worth noting about yesterday’s performance is that the Prime Minister struck a confident tone in his remarks from the Red Fort’s ramparts. He also made a long list of promises, which is what might be expected of a government at the start of a fresh five-year term. It is an interesting contrast that, speaking from the same spot five years ago, Dr Singh had said that he had no promises to make, only those he had to keep. He had also underlined the seven sutras of water, agriculture, education, health care, employment, urban renewal and infrastructure. Those priorities have not changed; but yesterday, Dr Singh was more specific: get rid of slums in the cities, build 20 km of highways every day, and so on. For some reason, though, he made no mention of electricity—perhaps because the power situation today is worse than it was in 2004. Dr Singh mentioned the passage of the Right to Education Bill, and the intention to pass a food security law. These are important initiatives, yet he dealt with them cursorily, as items on a long list, when he should and could have dwelt at some length on what these new laws could mean—both being subjects with emotive potential because they involve basic freedoms.
What was distressing was the complete absence of any mention of market-oriented reforms. It cannot be that the Prime Minister does not believe in them. It might be that he thinks that an Independence Day speech is not the occasion to focus on them, and that these are subjects to be reserved for when he addresses CII or Ficci. If so, he in particular is completely wrong. India’s markets are still imperfect, and there is much improvement that can be achieved in both efficiency and general welfare by advancing the role of markets—which, therefore, are as important for ordinary people as for businessmen. Nor did he find it worth mentioning that the country was on the cusp of a tax revolution—the goods and services tax is to be introduced next year, and the new direct tax code is to take effect a year later. India’s tax laws will be unrecognisable after both changes are introduced. It is hard to understand why the Women’s Reservation Bill (which got a mention) is more important than these.