T N Ninan: When the PM speaks

WEEKEND RUMINATIONS

Eight days from now, Manmohan Singh will address the nation on Independence Day from the ramparts of Red Fort. He is not a great orator who sways a crowd and, not being your usual politician who has to win popular elections, has never needed to be one. He is at his best in small groups, when his sincerity and intellectual stature come through. What should we expect from him on the 57th anniversary of India's freedom?

No Prime Minister since Nehru has made a memorable speech from Red Fort on the one day that he/she is guaranteed an audience. Indira Gandhi used to be shrill, and Vajpayee was never in his element on such a formal occasion, because he could not deploy his pregnant pauses and double entendres, which always said much more than a written text can possibly do. Most of the Prime Ministers in between were poor orators (think of Narasimha Rao); the exception might have been Rajiv Gandhi, but he was better in English (remember his speech to the US Congress in 1986).

Come to think of it, one cannot even recall a memorable radio or TV address to the nation that a Prime Minister has made (and the Presidents have always been eminently forgettable, other than S Radhakrishnan on the day Nehru died). Indira Gandhi's on the night that Pakistan attacked in 1971, for instance, was singularly devoid of stirring words.

Certainly, none of their speeches stands out in the memory as an eloquent statement of principles or intent""unlike many that one can recall of leaders elsewhere (Clinton's state of the union address at the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, for instance, not to speak of Kennedy's inaugural speech, and many more in between).

Indeed, it is odd that no Indian Prime Minister has even tried to use the medium of the fireside chat, to start a regular dialogue with the people of the country. Even in closed door sessions, our leaders sound excessively formal, and come across as the captives of their speechwriters.

They have uniformly avoided the personal touch, steered clear of the memorable phrase""which is a pity because the way you use words is a tool in diplomacy. So it was a relief to see Manmohan Singh, at a dinner for Singapore's Prime Minister Goh), make a pre-dinner speech that sounded as though he meant what he said, and that he was genuinely addressing his guest.

Oratory is not a condition for Indian leadership, though we are not short of orators in our politics. So, surely, it is time our leaders became better communicators on the big occasion. Manmohan Singh is not a natural candidate for this, as we have seen (his first and only TV address to the nation was cast in the predictable mould by Doordarshan).

Indeed, he might do quite well if he tried a desi version of the fireside chat, because he speaks clearly, he has more or less stopped using distracting fill words like "I think"), his thought processes are clear, and he readily makes eye contact and conveys simplicity and sincerity. If he chose one or two simple themes for a monthly talk to the nation, he might find that he gets a good audience.

But that's for later. What should we expect from him on Independence Day? Perhaps he should play to his strengths, and avoid trying to be what he is not. This would mean picking on two or three of the big themes (water would be a good candidate this year, what with the drought and floods, the Punjab imbroglio and the near-face-off that was there over the Cauvery).

But this should not be reduced to a rambling discussion of the problem, there should be a course of action spelt out: what the government will do, and what the people should do on their own. Another big theme could be the whole issue of who gains and who loses in the reform process, and how his government will address the concerns of the man in the street even as it does what it has to do in the larger interest. If Manmohan Singh is to add a facet to his many qualities, and become someone who emotes and communicates with ordinary people about ordinary everyday problems, this is a good chance. Let us hope he does not waste it.