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Tavleen Singh writes: PM Modi’s speech was too long, too angry, and more appropriate for an election rally

That sense of being at an election rally was heightened by the slogans he encouraged his MPs to raise when he said something he thought was exceptional.

tavleen singh writes, pm modi speech manipur

PM Modi's jibes at the opposition were so brutal and wounding that they were humiliated enough to stage a walkout halfway through his excruciatingly long speech. (PTI)

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My first comment on last week’s vote of no confidence is that the speeches were too long and very boring. So boring that during the Prime Minister’s interminable reply, social media was flooded with shots of his ministers taking a quiet snooze behind his back. Narendra Modi is famous for his oratory, but this was not his best performance. His speech was too long, too angry, and more appropriate for an election rally than the Lok Sabha. That sense of being at an election rally was heightened by the slogans he encouraged his MPs to raise when he said something he thought was exceptional.

His flock in Parliament is made up of people who believe that he is a demi-god without whose blessings they would not be able to win their own seats, but do they need to yell ‘Modi, Modi, Modi’ as if they were cheerleaders and not Members of Parliament? What puzzled me most was the rage that infused the Prime Minister’s speech and the charge that it was the Congress Party (read Nehru-Gandhi dynasty) who was responsible for partition. This is unfair and untrue. The fact that India did not progress as fast as Southeast Asia under the socialist, secular rule of the Dynasty is true and Indian voters know this or the party of our freedom movement would not have lost two general elections so badly. There is no question that the average Indian voter feels that his life has improved since Modi became prime minister which is why he has won twice with a full majority. Polls indicate that he is on course to win a third term.

This is why in Parliament it would be great if he would behave more like the leader of India and not just the BJP. His jibes at the opposition were so brutal and wounding that they were humiliated enough to stage a walkout halfway through his excruciatingly long speech. It was then that he turned his attention to Manipur but again he tried to blame the Congress Party for the historical mistakes made in Manipur instead of telling us what he plans to do to bring peace. It is simply not enough to say that the ‘sun of peace’ will rise soon. Nor is it enough to say that he thinks of Manipur as a ‘piece of my heart’.

Also Read | Rahul Gandhi fires salvos at PM Modi from Wayanad: ‘BJP destroyed Manipur, Congress will rebuild it’

On Manipur it was the Home Minister who spoke with honesty about what had gone so wrong that the state is virtually in a state of civil war. Sadly, both he and the Prime Minister made it clear that their Chief Minister would not be losing his job. This indicates that they are not willing to admit that he has lost the trust of the people of Manipur and that when the violence is at its worst, he seems totally unable to control it. Neither the Prime Minister nor the Home Minister, in their two-hour long speeches, gave any indication of what they plan to do to bring peace in this fragile border state.

If there were those who hoped that the opposition parties would have something more useful to say they would have been disappointed. I admit to being most puzzled by the speech that Rahul Gandhi gave. After meandering on needlessly about his ‘yatra’ when he finally came to Manipur, he first talked of two women he had met in the relief camps and told their tragic stories. Then in truly melodramatic fashion he talked of how Bharat had been ‘murdered’ in Manipur and blamed the Prime Minister personally for tearing Manipur in two. If he believes these things to be true, should he not have made some effort to explain what his party would have done if it was in power?

As you may have done, I listened to as many speeches as I could possibly take and concluded, as the Prime Minister did, that most opposition leaders had come unprepared for the debate. If I were in a relief camp in Manipur or a victim of the terrible violence that continues to this day, I would be worried about my future and the future of my state. If I were a woman who had been gangraped or paraded naked like some grotesque trophy in this horrible war I would be in despair.

Tavleen Singh writes: PM Modi’s speech was too long, too angry, and more appropriate for an election rally

That sense of being at an election rally was heightened by the slogans he encouraged his MPs to raise when he said something he thought was exceptional.

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