Editorial
Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered his maiden Independence Day speech from the ramparts of historic Red Fort on 15 August 2014 and spelled out his vision of future India. His views on female foeticide, crimes against women, cleanliness and good governance are indeed appreciable. He also announced some good initiatives like opening bank accounts for every family, making all villages as model villages, building toilets at all schools etc. But it is to be seen how many of these announcements are actually implemented on the ground.
PM Modi delivered his maiden Independence Day speech in the backdrop of heightened communal tension, regular occurrence of riots and a weeklong heated debate over the subject in Lok Sabha. It was genuinely expected he would come down heavily on traders of hatred and issue a stern warning to them. Alas! He didn’t.
In his over an hour-long speech in Hindi, PM Modi spared hardly a minute for the menace which has been eating into the roots of our nation for decades.
“Even after independence we sometimes face the poison of casteism or communalism. How long will it continue and who is going to benefit from it? I appeal to the youth of the country that the poison of casteism, communalism or sectarianism is a hindrance to our country’s progress. Think and try a ten years moratorium to get a society free of all these tensions.” This is all he said on the subject of communal violence.
The short time he gave and the soft words he chose are enough indicators that he is not much worried about such tensions, and he needn’t be so as such things have always helped his Bharatiya Janata Party to get political benefits.
As head of the nation, he should have first appealed to the countrymen to end casteism, communalism or sectarianism forever. He didn’t. Instead, he urged people to “think and try a ten years moratorium to get a society free of all these tensions”. He should have warned those involved in the trade of hatred and are creating communal tension. He didn’t utter a word.
Now the big question is: Why does he want just a ‘moratorium’ (suspension) – not elimination – of communalism and that too just for 10 years?
Does it mean he is more concerned about running his government peacefully than eliminating communalism forever? It also means, and has been noticed in the past as well, that the BJP wants its cadres not to create communal tension when it is ruling, and gives them free hand when it is out of power.
He rightly said that the poison of casteism, communalism or sectarianism is a hindrance to the country’s progress. Yet, he didn’t spell out any measure to check the menace permanently.
The country needs a harsher anti-riot law. A related bill (communal violence (prevention) bill) has been pending for almost a decade mainly because of some objections from the PM’s party. Now as PM and his party in power, Narendra Modi, under whose regime as chief minister, Gujarat witnessed the country’s bloodiest ever communal riot in 2002, must ensure a harsher anti-riot law.
