Achche din is out, bure din is in.
The semantic shift in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s anniversary day speech is a clear indicator of what he is comfortable talking about: the past. The future, at the moment, is a no-go area for Modi.
Addressing a large gathering near Mathura, Modi spent most of the time comparing his government’s performance with that of the UPA. “No corruption, no scam, no power-centre, low inflation, a hard-working PM,” Modi listed the differences. “Haven’t the bure din (bad days) gone?” he asked, summing up his achievements.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing a rally in Mathura. PTIPrime Minister Narendra Modi addressing a rally in Mathura. PTI
Modi is a smart communicator. He knows the absence of bure din doesn’t automatically imply that achche din are here. And, in a rare show of political honesty, he is not claiming what he hasn’t delivered yet. But he is telling the impatient voter, waiting for the promised good days, that at least he is not suffering in the Modi raj. That’s Modi’s way of advising people to count their blessings not his promises.
It isn’t a bad strategy. Reminding people of the jumlas from the heady days of the campaign would have pitted Candidate Modi against PM Modi. It would have been a lopsided contest, and Candidate Modi would have won with a first-round knockout of PM Modi. But the UPA is still a convenient punching bag. And since it was the first anniversary of the end of UPA too, Modi had every right to remind people how lucky they are to have gotten rid of that horrible government. (Though, he is smartly repackaging and recycling some of UPA’s original ideas and struggling to roll out some of his own).
Next year when he celebrates his government’s second anniversary, Modi will not have the luxury of talking about the UPA’s failures. By then, the Manmohan Singh government would have become a distant memory and the only comparison Modi will be allowed to make is with his promises. In another year we will know what has been the impact of his Swacch Bharat campaign, the Jan Dhan Yojana, NDA’s social security schemes, frequent foreign visits and appeals for making it in India. He would have made decent progress on some of his own unfinished agenda and would have added a few more tangible achievements to his report card. But that day is still a year away and till then Modi should be allowed to slip back into the skin of a former opposition leader to divert attention from the incumbent PM.
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The other important take-away from the PM’s speech was his frequent use of the F word. The number of times the PM mentioned farmers in his speech was an apt indicator that Modi is trying to counter the Congress propaganda that his government is suit, boot ki sarkar and doesn’t care much for the poor and the rural population.
Modi must have realised that he needs a quick image makeover to ensure that the Congress is not able to penetrate deep into rural India and win back the attention of the poor and the underprivileged with its new line of attack. So, he talked about his schemes for farmers, initiatives to make their farms better, easy availability of urea and also threw in some barbs about the culpability of the Congress for the suicide of farmers before he became the PM. But, there was not a word on the controversial Land Acquisition Bill, seen as anti-farmer. Don’t be surprised if Modi revisits the entire controversy and beats a tactical retreat from his current intractable position to continue positioning himself as pro-farmer.
A year ago, Modi’s speeches were all about grand ideas, alliterations and focus on his urban constituency. Smart cities, bullet trains, management mantras—5Ps, 3Cs, 4Ds etc—would have formed the core of his speech. But, Modi is convinced that this constituency is still solidly behind him. He is, instead, focusing his energy on addressing the section he could lose to rivals. From the darling of India, Modi is now trying to become the messiah of Bharat.
It wasn’t mere coincidence that he chose western UP to launch his anniversary bash instead of addressing the media from a posh office in Lutyen’s Delhi. Both, the venue and the speech, indicated that in its second year the ‘suit, boot ki sarkar’ will work for the aam aadmi in the farms and distant towns of India.
