It was any other Monday morning – lousy and unenergetic until half-past 10, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi stood up in the Rajya Sabha to deliver his speech on the motion of thanks for the President’s address. What followed was a brutal takedown of opposition parties, eternal ‘protestors’, foreign celebrities and the kind. Essentially, like any other speech of the Prime Minister in Parliament, this one too was a class apart, with Narendra Modi delivering one blow after the other to his detractors and name-callers in his signature humorous style.
As the country continues to witness the antics of ‘farmers’ camping on the borders of Delhi, the Prime Minister’s speech too was largely focussed on the lies being spread by vested interest groups regarding the agricultural reforms, and its supposed consequences on the livelihoods of farmers. At the floor of the Rajya Sabha, PM Modi, after addressing Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose as the first Prime Minister of Azad Hind, went on to demolish the narrative of the farm laws being anti-farmer.
He also made a clear distinction between the ground-realities of the small farmers, as compared to the rich and affluent ‘farmers’ of Punjab, Haryana, Western Uttar Pradesh and parts of Uttarakhand. Saying that his government would continue working for small and marginal farmers, the Prime Minister reiterated, “MSP was there. MSP is there. MSP will remain in the future.” To remind the Congress of its past promises, PM Modi also quoted former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who in support of the same farm reforms, had said, “There are other rigidities because of marketing regime set up in 1930s which prevent our farmers from selling their produce where they get highest rate of return…”
Turning his focus to the protests and the international limelight that they have been receiving of late, PM Modi sarcastically remarked that the country as a whole must beware of a new kind of FDI, different from the usual ‘Foreign Direct Investment’. “We have to protect the nation from this new FDI. We need Foreign Direct Investment but the new FDI is ‘Foreign Destructive Ideology’, we have to protect ourselves from it,” he said. Then, taking a dig at jobless people like Yogendra Yadav, who make their way into protests and agitations of all sorts, the Prime Minister said that a new ‘Andolan Jivi’ entity has come up in the country. “They can be spotted wherever there is a protest, be it agitation by lawyers, students, or labourers, explicitly or implicitly. They cannot live without ‘andolan‘, we have to identify them and protect the nation from them,” he added.
The Prime Minister’s speech would have been incomplete without a grand pot-shot at the TMC, especially with the all-important West Bengal polls approaching. “I was listening to TMC MP Derek O’Brien. He has chosen some good words like “Freedom of Speech” and “Intimidation” in his narration. While listening to his good words, I was wondering if he is referring to West Bengal or the country,” PM Modi said.
Prime Minister Modi also sought to remind the country of the atrocities that the Congress inflicted on the Sikh community in 1984, and further said that Punjab suffered the most during partition of India. He also said that India is proud of every Sikh. “What have they not done for this country? Whatever respect we give them will always be less. I’ve been fortunate to spend crucial years of my life in Punjab. Language used by some for them and attempts to mislead them will never benefit the nation,” he added.
PM Modi added that whenever some drastic changes are made even within one home and family, tussles are natural and but expected. To not expect any resistance to the drastic changes in India’s agricultural sector in the backdrop of the farm reforms being passed would be foolish, according to him. However, to alleviate the fears of those protesting, PM Modi cited the example of the mild and animal husbandry industries in India, which were leading examples of how private involvement and investments, along with cooperative oversight, can turn around entire sectors for the better. PM Modi also said that in every wedding or celebration, at least one uncle or aunty getting angry is but expected. This was what was happening in the form of the farmers’ protest too, according to him.
In conclusion, the Prime Minister said that he feels happy to be serving as the punching bag of opposition leaders, who for personal reasons and inherent frustrations too, are unburdening themselves by slandering PM Modi. “Modi hai, mauka lijiye,” were the Prime Minister’s powerful closing words, in an apparently subtle challenge to whosoever it may concern.