New Delhi: India's 67th Independence Day turned into a full-blown political war between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi launched a scathing attack on the Prime Minister, tearing into Dr Manmohan Singh's last Independence Day speech ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Modi said Singh's speech from the ramparts of Red Fort in Delhi reflected despair and accused him of promoting dynasty politics. He also challenged the Prime Minister to a debate on economy and the route to be taken to make India a developed nation.
While Singh's speech lacked any direction as the Prime Minister kept harping on the work done by the previous Congress governments and in the last nine years of his tenure, Modi's speech was very political, aggressive and a fierce personal attack on the Prime Minister. In the face off between Singh and Modi, the latter clearly had the edge and came out stronger.
"In the sixties, Pandit Nehru set up new industries and factories, implemented new irrigation projects and opened new universities. By laying emphasis on the role of science and technology in nation building he started the work of transforming this ancient country into a modern nation. In the seventies, Indiraji boosted our confidence as a nation. During this period, we launched our first satellite in space. The Green Revolution enabled us to be self sufficient in food grains for the first time. In the next decade, Rajiv Gandhiji set into motion the process of technological and economic modernisation," said the Prime Minister.
Modi gave a point-by-point rebuttal of Singh's speech while arguing that the Prime Minister had failed to give direction to the country which had been reeling under the burdens of humungous corruption, slow economic growth, a hostile neighbourhood and policy paralysis.
While the Prime Minister claimed that Indian economy had been hit due to the global slowdown and the crisis would not last long, Modi asked him for a debate about development.
The Prime Minister, who delivered his 30-minute speech more than an hour before Modi's address, without taking that name of any leader said that there is no place for narrow sectarian ideologies in a modern country much to the delight of the Gujarat Chief Minister's critics, Modi claimed that his development agenda was non-partisan and he had worked for all the people of his state irrespective of their religion. Modi then went on to point out that Singh had not taken the name of those prime ministers who did not belong to the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty in his speech even though one of them - Lal Bahadur Shastri belonged to the Congress party itself.
"You are the Prime Minister of the nation. Many governments have worked for it. But from Red Fort you only remember one family. Would it not be better if you remembered Sardar Patel as well? Lal Bahadur Shastri ji, who coined the slogan Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan was a prime minister from your own party, you could have remembered him. These greats gave their lives to the Congress," Modi said in his speech at Lalan College grounds in Bhuj.
Modi added that he had never claimed that he alone was responsible for the Gujarat success story and thanked all the previous governments and chief ministers for ensuring that the state kept on progressing. Modi had upped the ante on Wednesday when he had challenged Singh saying that the entire country would watch their speech and then decide who had better ideas to alleviate their woes.
"You unfurled the Tricolour so many times but the issue you raised were the same as Pandit Nehru sixty years ago. So what has changed? What have you given?" he asked.
He pilloried the Prime Minister for taking what he called was a very soft stand of the transgressions by India's neighbours particularly Pakistan and China. Asking the Prime Minister to allow the Army to retaliate for attacks across the Line of Control, he said the Congress-led government had failed to tackle the border issues.
"Rashtrapatiji said there is a limit to patience with Pakistan. This was a big indication. I was expecting the Prime Minister to say something about it but we could not hear anything about it from the Prime Minister. I do not say the Red Fort is a place to challenge Pakistan but surely it is a place to raise the morale of our Armed Forces. Today our security is under threat but we watch silently," he said.
But the Prime Minister failed to take the cue and many see it as a missed opportunity. In his speech there was no promise of a new India and no roadmap for what the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance planned to do. It was in fact just an account of its past and legacy.
Modi, however, turned around what could have been a routine chief minister's Independence Day speech into a full blown attack on the Congress, UPA and the Prime Minister even using President Pranab Mukherjee's speech frequently to hit out at the Centre.
The Congress, however, defended the Prime Minister saying that he has delivered over the last 10 years and Independence Day is not a day for political mud slinging.
But at the end of the day it was Modi who sounded better and scored higher.
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