I have been following Modi's speeches for a while now because it's important to know what kind of ideas country's PM aspirant has and what he believes in. Also after last election when Advani offered a live televised debate to Manmohan and he refused it's important we don't repeat that mistake again.
His speeches during Gujarat elections were good and his speech just after he won the election was very good. But I was disappointed with his speeches after Gujarat election and his speech in Hyderabad I thought was really bad. The main problem I had with them was that Modi was focusing too much time talking about border issues with both Pakistan and China and how MMS was proving to be weak and not able to do much about it and frankly too much of it was rhetoric BS. We know that there are no easy answers here. Even Americans have floundered in dealing with Pakistan, blowing hot and cold, not able to decide how to deal with Pakistan. When you have a nuclear-armed nation wanting to pick fight with you there are no easy answers, and the same goes with China too. As a good speaker you are supposed to respect the intelligence of the audience and such rhetoric without any answers gets a bit boring after a while.
Same thing when he said how rupee was at 1 rupee a dollar at independence (wrong info) or how China is spending 20% its GDP on education (totally wrong). People on the right tried to explain it by saying that he was probably trying to say China's education spending is increasing at 20% per year not that it is 20% of GDP. But equating value of currency with nation's progress is problematic so is quoting wrong figure of China's spend on education to make your point about importance of education. Remember audience is not dumb, respect their intelligence. And add to it the puppy remark or burkha of secularism and I was beginning to feel disappointed. Where is the Modi who was supposed to be such eloquent orator and who was supposed to chose each word carefully to project right image. Because every successful politicians are masters of what they say and very careful about the words they choose. Puppy remark sounds even worse in Hindi (the original language of interview) and burkha of secularism is again a loaded word. If those words were genuine mistakes then it is bad but if it was deliberate then that is even worse. That means he doesn't understand at all that he has to project more centrist position if he wants any chance to win. Projecting any Hindu rightist tendencies is a huge mistake as your core right-wing voters are anyway going to vote for you. Its the centrists and secular Hindu and Muslim votes that he needs, also to project himself as an acceptable ally to the regional parties, which he will need after election.
Big problem for me though was not what he said, but what he didn't say. The biggest advantage that Modi has is that he represents a sense of hope to millions of people whether justified or not. He has a track record to show for that unlike his opponent. All he has to do in his speeches is to sell hope like he used to do in speeches he has given before Gujarat elections. Talk about farmers of Gujarat exporting their produce to rich countries, or success of potato farming near Mehsana where farmer's sons who are engineers are still doing farming as it is more profitable. It would be a music to farmers across India who are barely surviving. Talk about industry, talk about electricity reform and living without power cuts, talk about ports and roads and other infrastructure. Basically give Indians a picture of what their country can be if they elect him and while doing so keep reminding of the faults and mistakes of this government, which are plenty. Focusing on rhetorical speeches about Chinese and Pakistani aggression when you don't have any answer to it is a mistake.
However, in the last two speeches he has redeemed himself for me by addressing some crucial issues. He has talked about some important issues that are close to my heart and that needed to be told. I hadn't been able to hear his latest Delhi speech live and when I heard about 'dehati aurat' controversy I thought here we go again. He has again focused his speech mostly on Pakistan and his rhetoric of weak PM and by using that word which we don't even know was said by Nawaz or not he had given media something to focus on making sure other parts of his speech are ignored. But still keeping with my intention of hearing his every speech I went online and heard his speech on youtube and I was impressed and then again at his 8-hour question-answer session with students he again made some important points. Here are some important points he made that I think need urgent attention.
1. Power Sector: The most important issue among many we are facing today in my opinion (and the biggest failing of the government) is the power shortage issue. Modi in Delhi speech talked about how thousands of MW of electricity generation capacity is lying idle because of want of gas or coal while we have power cuts even in the capital Delhi.
This is the part of the Coalgate mess. India needed (still do) huge electricity generation. Govt. gave out huge contracts to build power stations and the free market capitalism did its magic. For once the power generation capacity was going ahead of power requirement. But there was one problem. All those power companies thought they will get coal from Coal India and get gas from Reliance KG basin. Both flopped. One because of usual bureaucratic delays and the fact that our environment ministry suddenly decided that it was not going to be rubber stamp ministry anymore. And the other because of technical difficulties in gas extraction.
Govt. had one way out of it, which was the captive mining route where you give a captive mine along with the power plant and allow the private company to use the coal from the mine for power generation. But our govt. decided to do this haphazardly and arbitrarily, some sat on their mines for years, some were still waiting for environment approval, and in some cases people close to govt. benefited from getting cheap mines. Naturally all these caused outrage and we had coalgate scam, which made govt. further scared and everything further froze. Govt. paralysis meant approvals were further delayed.
In the meanwhile all those power companies who had invested billions are sitting on huge loses on their balance sheet as their power plants lie idle. PSU banks which were once praised during financial meltdown for being conservative and prudent now sit on huge NPAs from power companies and face downgrade risks.
Its a huge mess created by the govt. that has a massive implications for the country when Tamilnadu, an important state for the country which is an auto hub and one of our better performing industrialized state, has power cuts for 12 hours. So I am glad that Namo focused on this in his Delhi speech.
2. Food corporation of India: Modi talked about reforming Food Corporation of India by dividing it into three parts -- each overseeing purchase of food-grains, storage, and supply. As we see mountains of food-grains rotting in the open and broken down PDS this is another important suggestion.
3. Environmental clearances: Modi said in Delhi speech that in UPA there are govt. within govt. and how environment ministry has become another govt. which everybody is upset with for sitting on projects and causing delays in giving environment clearances for important projects. Another important issue.
3. Losses in the aviation sector: In his Delhi speech Modi talked about losses in the aviation sector. He said airline firms in India made losses of Rs.53,000 crore from 2007 onwards and Government gave Rs.30,000 crore bailout. He was just talking about govt. equity infusion of 30,000 crore to Air India, but many PSU banks have lost millions in Kingfisher also. He didn't talk about privatizing or selling of AI, but on the base of what he said I am hopeful that he will if he has a chance sell off AI and stop bleeding of public money.
4. Toilets before temples: Again extremely important issue.
5. Railways: He has talked about railways reform before and he did again this time. He has before even talked about allowing private players to run few trains. Again important issue.
6. Indigenisation of defense production: I know it is easier said than done and he might not be able to do anything about it but I am glad he is thinking in that direction.
So I think Modi is in right direction. Many more speeches to go before the election. Here is hoping we have agenda driven elections this time.
His speeches during Gujarat elections were good and his speech just after he won the election was very good. But I was disappointed with his speeches after Gujarat election and his speech in Hyderabad I thought was really bad. The main problem I had with them was that Modi was focusing too much time talking about border issues with both Pakistan and China and how MMS was proving to be weak and not able to do much about it and frankly too much of it was rhetoric BS. We know that there are no easy answers here. Even Americans have floundered in dealing with Pakistan, blowing hot and cold, not able to decide how to deal with Pakistan. When you have a nuclear-armed nation wanting to pick fight with you there are no easy answers, and the same goes with China too. As a good speaker you are supposed to respect the intelligence of the audience and such rhetoric without any answers gets a bit boring after a while.
Same thing when he said how rupee was at 1 rupee a dollar at independence (wrong info) or how China is spending 20% its GDP on education (totally wrong). People on the right tried to explain it by saying that he was probably trying to say China's education spending is increasing at 20% per year not that it is 20% of GDP. But equating value of currency with nation's progress is problematic so is quoting wrong figure of China's spend on education to make your point about importance of education. Remember audience is not dumb, respect their intelligence. And add to it the puppy remark or burkha of secularism and I was beginning to feel disappointed. Where is the Modi who was supposed to be such eloquent orator and who was supposed to chose each word carefully to project right image. Because every successful politicians are masters of what they say and very careful about the words they choose. Puppy remark sounds even worse in Hindi (the original language of interview) and burkha of secularism is again a loaded word. If those words were genuine mistakes then it is bad but if it was deliberate then that is even worse. That means he doesn't understand at all that he has to project more centrist position if he wants any chance to win. Projecting any Hindu rightist tendencies is a huge mistake as your core right-wing voters are anyway going to vote for you. Its the centrists and secular Hindu and Muslim votes that he needs, also to project himself as an acceptable ally to the regional parties, which he will need after election.
Big problem for me though was not what he said, but what he didn't say. The biggest advantage that Modi has is that he represents a sense of hope to millions of people whether justified or not. He has a track record to show for that unlike his opponent. All he has to do in his speeches is to sell hope like he used to do in speeches he has given before Gujarat elections. Talk about farmers of Gujarat exporting their produce to rich countries, or success of potato farming near Mehsana where farmer's sons who are engineers are still doing farming as it is more profitable. It would be a music to farmers across India who are barely surviving. Talk about industry, talk about electricity reform and living without power cuts, talk about ports and roads and other infrastructure. Basically give Indians a picture of what their country can be if they elect him and while doing so keep reminding of the faults and mistakes of this government, which are plenty. Focusing on rhetorical speeches about Chinese and Pakistani aggression when you don't have any answer to it is a mistake.
However, in the last two speeches he has redeemed himself for me by addressing some crucial issues. He has talked about some important issues that are close to my heart and that needed to be told. I hadn't been able to hear his latest Delhi speech live and when I heard about 'dehati aurat' controversy I thought here we go again. He has again focused his speech mostly on Pakistan and his rhetoric of weak PM and by using that word which we don't even know was said by Nawaz or not he had given media something to focus on making sure other parts of his speech are ignored. But still keeping with my intention of hearing his every speech I went online and heard his speech on youtube and I was impressed and then again at his 8-hour question-answer session with students he again made some important points. Here are some important points he made that I think need urgent attention.
1. Power Sector: The most important issue among many we are facing today in my opinion (and the biggest failing of the government) is the power shortage issue. Modi in Delhi speech talked about how thousands of MW of electricity generation capacity is lying idle because of want of gas or coal while we have power cuts even in the capital Delhi.
This is the part of the Coalgate mess. India needed (still do) huge electricity generation. Govt. gave out huge contracts to build power stations and the free market capitalism did its magic. For once the power generation capacity was going ahead of power requirement. But there was one problem. All those power companies thought they will get coal from Coal India and get gas from Reliance KG basin. Both flopped. One because of usual bureaucratic delays and the fact that our environment ministry suddenly decided that it was not going to be rubber stamp ministry anymore. And the other because of technical difficulties in gas extraction.
Govt. had one way out of it, which was the captive mining route where you give a captive mine along with the power plant and allow the private company to use the coal from the mine for power generation. But our govt. decided to do this haphazardly and arbitrarily, some sat on their mines for years, some were still waiting for environment approval, and in some cases people close to govt. benefited from getting cheap mines. Naturally all these caused outrage and we had coalgate scam, which made govt. further scared and everything further froze. Govt. paralysis meant approvals were further delayed.
In the meanwhile all those power companies who had invested billions are sitting on huge loses on their balance sheet as their power plants lie idle. PSU banks which were once praised during financial meltdown for being conservative and prudent now sit on huge NPAs from power companies and face downgrade risks.
Its a huge mess created by the govt. that has a massive implications for the country when Tamilnadu, an important state for the country which is an auto hub and one of our better performing industrialized state, has power cuts for 12 hours. So I am glad that Namo focused on this in his Delhi speech.
2. Food corporation of India: Modi talked about reforming Food Corporation of India by dividing it into three parts -- each overseeing purchase of food-grains, storage, and supply. As we see mountains of food-grains rotting in the open and broken down PDS this is another important suggestion.
3. Environmental clearances: Modi said in Delhi speech that in UPA there are govt. within govt. and how environment ministry has become another govt. which everybody is upset with for sitting on projects and causing delays in giving environment clearances for important projects. Another important issue.
3. Losses in the aviation sector: In his Delhi speech Modi talked about losses in the aviation sector. He said airline firms in India made losses of Rs.53,000 crore from 2007 onwards and Government gave Rs.30,000 crore bailout. He was just talking about govt. equity infusion of 30,000 crore to Air India, but many PSU banks have lost millions in Kingfisher also. He didn't talk about privatizing or selling of AI, but on the base of what he said I am hopeful that he will if he has a chance sell off AI and stop bleeding of public money.
4. Toilets before temples: Again extremely important issue.
5. Railways: He has talked about railways reform before and he did again this time. He has before even talked about allowing private players to run few trains. Again important issue.
6. Indigenisation of defense production: I know it is easier said than done and he might not be able to do anything about it but I am glad he is thinking in that direction.
So I think Modi is in right direction. Many more speeches to go before the election. Here is hoping we have agenda driven elections this time.
