For most politicians who get to join that exclusive club of Indian Prime Ministers, their first occasion at the Red Fort has to be an overwhelming experience. But Narendra Modi is no ordinary Prime Minister: unlike the others, he has already had the experience of speaking from a Red Fort, albeit from a cardboard facsimile of its facade.



Standing on the real ramparts on Friday, the prime minister gave a stirring speech that was reportedly breaking from tradition by including extempore portions. It also apparently included the first mention of toilets, rapes and iPads in any Independence Day speech.



But what did Modi actually say?


Unplanned Nation


The only major reform announced in the speech was one that was partially expected. It was evident from the get-go that Modi would not be handing much responsibility to the Planning Commission. Budgetary allocation powers were immediately taken away from the commission and handed to the finance ministry instead, and Modi left the Deputy Chairman position vacant.


During his speech, he announced that the six-decade-old central planning body would be shuttered and replaced with a new institution. Presumably, this will have a much more federal nature through more representation from the states, since Modi said, “if we have to take india forward, then states will have to be taken forward. The importance of federal structure is more today than it was in the last 60 years.”


No grand vision



A certain section of Modi’s supporters have been quite annoyed with decisions that the party has made on the policy front that belies expectations of a grand right-ward shift in economic thinking. But Modi stuck to the line that he has held since his first address in Parliament: this is a government for the poor and the farmers, and there will be no attempt to broadly re-align thinking towards free markets or the ending of subsidies.


At the very start of the speech, he insisted that it was not the people of Delhi who built this nation, it was India’s farmers. Meanwhile, the conclusion of the speech included a classic call to action, but one that is more likely to remind you of Indira Gandhi: “Kya hum garibi ko hata nahin sakte? Kya hum garibi ke khilaf ladai nahin jeet sakte hain?” Can we not end poverty? Can we not win this battle against poverty?


Boys won’t be boys



There were few surprises in the speech and very little mention of contemporary events. Instead, Modi preferred to speak in broad platitudes talking about overall challenges faced by the country or the ways in which it has progressed, with his recent visits to Bhutan and Nepal counting among the few actual references to  his experience in power. He did manage to surprise many with his comments about the way parents treat their children, especially when it comes to women's safety.


"Every parent who has a 10-year-old girl at home, asks them where are they going, when will they come back and tell them to call back home after reaching their place. But have you ever asked your son where he is going, why are they going and who are their friends? After all, the person committing the crime is also someone’s son.”


Toilet training


“People might that speaking about toilets from the Red Fort…what kind of Prime Minister is this?” Modi asked the crowd, before going on to explain that as a poor person from a poor family, he believed this issue should get respect. With the aim of putting a girls’ toilet in every school in the country, for “only then will our daughters stop running away from school”, Modi called on every Member of Parliament to spend the discretionary funds available to them on this, while encouraging the corporate sector to put their social responsibility cash into the same effort.


“When we are here again next year, we should be able to say with confidence that there is no school in the country where there is no separate toilet for girls and boys,” Modi said.


Made in India


It might have lacked the nostalgic value of an Alisha Chinai callback, but Modi made it very clear that he wanted India to be a manufacturing powerhouse. There’s nothing new in that, of course. Ever since economists realised that India had somehow jumped straight from agriculture to services, politicians have been insisting that they will do what it takes to ensure India’s manufacturing back on track.


In doing so, he also openly called on the world to do business with India. “From the ramparts of the Red Fort, I would like to call the people of the world to ‘come, make in India.’ Come here, and manufacture here. Sell the products anywhere in the world, but manufacture here. We have the power, I am inviting you,” he said.


Tid-Bits


*The Ministry of External Affairs is used to getting about 50-60 requests from other countries’ missions every year for passes to the prime minister's Independence Day speech, but this year apparently up to 150 of 153 missions in Delhi had asked to attend. The MEA was only able to accommodate 144 of them, due to space, and for the very first time had simultaneous English translation for them


*Modi insisted that he was not speaking to the people as the prime minister, but as the nation’s prime servant. Intentionally or otherwise, that is a callback to the very first prime minister of the country, Jawaharlal Nehru. In his first broadcast to the people of India on August 15, 1947, Nehru said, “Today I address you for the first time officially as the First Servant of the Indian people, pledged to their service and their betterment.”


*For all the talk about Modi focused entirely on development, he ended up saying develop or development less than Manmohan SIngh did in his first Independence Day speech in 2004.




*Since there has to be one motto that harks back to our history, Modi went with a more classical version of his Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikaas tagline: Sangachchhdhvam Samvadadhvam sam wo manansi jaanataam. We walk together, we move together, we think together, we resolve together and together we take this country forward.


*There was a bit of back patting, bordering on humblebragging. Not only did Modi remind everyone that he is an outsider to Delhi, and so can see how dysfunctional the place is, he also pointed out how it should not be news that he was the one to install a great work ethic in the capital. “As the Head of the Government I could have derived pleasure in the fact that everything started going on time, cleanliness got the attention, but I was not taking pleasure, I was feeling pained. That thing, I want to tell today in public. And why, because if government officers arrive office in time, does that make a news?"