In the historic tradition of boring
speechmaking of last 9 years, Manmohan Singh added one more chapter of empty
rhetoric today with his 10th Independence Day speech from the Red
Fort.
10th in row, that
would have been achievement but for the reasons that the whole nation knows now
and that Mr. Manmohan Singh wants to run away from!
10th in row would be
nothing more but one more statistical addition to his profile now.
During his earlier tenure, the
boredom was largely due to his lifeless delivery of words, a flat voice, an
unclear or highly accentuated diction and an expressionless face.
But he remained largely bearable
due to his personal image when the nation saw in him a man of integrity.
That is not the case anymore.
In fact, that has not been the
case anymore for the last four years.
He is no more seen as a man of
words, a persona of integrity. He has lost all what he earned during his first
term as the prime minister of the nation. The wash-out also includes the good
name earned before becoming the prime minister.
He heads a government that is
undoubtedly one of the most corrupt governments in the Indian political
history.
He heads a government that is
ironically one of the most undemocratic governments in the Indian democratic
history.
He decides to remain silent when
the whole nation expects him to speak.
He decides to remain silent when
he is expected to be answerable for the endless corruption and undemocratic
acts of his government.
He may not be in control but his
silence only implicates him. His selective utterances only tell that he has
become a politician who wants to save his political chair somehow, at any cost,
like almost of the politicians of the day are.
He looks and sounds more like a
sorry figure now. His words, now, never reflect an honest introspection of an
intellectual he was known as.
He beats the drum about
achievements that are clearly misleading. He makes projections for the future
while still living in the past. He is trying to claim the future by misleading
us on his present, the four years of which, make us lament for the sorry state
of affairs in the nation that directly affect our day-to-day lives.
There was nothing new he spoke
about on India’s
67th Independence Day. It was a boring repetition of what he has
been saying all these years, speech after speech.
I am not going to waste my
symbolic joy of the Independence Day by digging into the shambolic soul of
Manmohan Singh’s yet another lifeless speech.
I have already written much when
it didn’t reserve even a passing mention.
Forgive me.