Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first Independence Day speech on August 15, 2020 after retaining the PM office by winning the 2019 Lok Sabha election was focused on the Covid-19 pandemic. During his speech, that went on for 86 minutes, he said the term corona 22 times, pandemic 9 times and health 18 times, a word cloud analysis of his 2020 Independence Day speech says. He saluted the frontline workers engaged in COVID-19 treatment and relief, including the healthcare staff, police, courier delivery agents and vendors, journalists and other government staff directly involved.
The last Independence Day saw 63,490 new cases taking the cumulative total to 25,89,682. On August 15, 2020, India had 6,77,444 active cases that touched its peak on September 18 with 10,17,754 active cases. The first COVID wave in India saw cases and COVID-19 fatalities rising in July and August, 2020 before the month of September witnessing its peak, with September 17, 2020 registering 97,894 new cases.
While delivering his Independence Day speech last year, PM Modi spoke about the relief measures being provided to the country and at the same time, encouraged the nation to be self-reliant in every aspect, be it healthcare or other manufacturing needs. PM Modi used the term ‘self-reliant’ 35 times and ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ 3 times then, making it the most important policy shift for India post pandemic and this year’s speech is expected to see an extension of what was spoken on last year.
With the coronavirus pandemic surging ahead, he asked the country to take the pledge to become self-reliant to handle the crisis and become a future economic engine of the globe. He encouraged the Indians to come forward, ignoring the doubts of the naysayers about India’s potential.
His clear message to the country was – ‘We need to realize and prepare for it.’ He wanted to convey – it is the time to realize the ‘Make in India’ potential – something that he mentioned 4 times in his speech.
His clear message was – be ‘vocal for local’ – an expression that he used 4 times while delivering his Independence Day speech last year.
PM Modi is expected to devote larger share of his Independence Day speech this year as well as on the pandemic as the country is still reeling under the consequences of the second wave.
On new farm laws, PM Modi gave clear indication about making new farm laws permanent in last year’s Independence Day speech when he spoke about how his government had taken steps to empower farmers by giving them an option to sell their product anywhere across the country, something that was not allowed to them earlier. He mentioned the term farm and farmers 18 times, agriculture 9 times and announced to boost agricultural infrastructure with Rs 100,000 crore allocating for it.
Three farm laws – the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act – were first issued as ordinances in June 2020 – and passed by the Parliament as bill and made permanent laws in the Monsoon Session in September 2020.
A section of farmers, basically from Punjab, western Uttar Pradesh and some parts of Haryana are protesting against these farm laws demanding their total repeal. Their protest, that started on November 25, is still continued but the government has decided not to accept their appeal of total repeal and PM is expected to speak in detail on new farms laws, the condition of farmers and the status of agricultural sector with next year, 2022, being the deadline year for doubling farmers’ income.
To boost the infrastructure push in the country, PM Modi last year announced Rs 110 lakh crore National Infrastructure Project with 7,000 projects in different sectors and said that the country was moving towards a multi-modal connectivity infrastructure in future. He is expected to share further details on infrastructure boost this year that will not only create growth options but will create job opportunities.
Using the word ‘expansionism’ 4 times, praising the response shown by the Indian soldiers PM Modi gave clear message to China and Pakistan about their aggressions on LoC and LaC in last year’s Independence Day speech, even if he didn’t name the countries.
August 5 this year completed 2 years of Article 370 abrogation from Jammu & Kashmir. The state has seen a drastic fall in terror incidents with successful Panchayat level elections held there. In last year’s Independence Day speech, a new J&K along with Ladakh as Union Territories were mentioned many times. J&K was mentioned 6 times while Ladakh 8 times.
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