Indian Independence Day – PM Modi Outlines Future Plans, Rehashes Earlier Efforts

TTT New Delhi:  Wearing a saffron-white coloured turban, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a clarion call for becoming self-reliant and expressed that the nation had the potential to accomplish it which will then, subsequently, herald a new era in the country’s economy, opening employable venues.  

Addressing the nation (an annual feature) from the ramparts of the Moghul-built Red Fort on the 74th Independence day after unfurling the national flag, Prime Minister Modi stressed the need for multi-level connectivity to boost the national infrastructure and acknowledged India’s ‘corona warriors’ for their selfless services during the pandemic which had limited much of the normal day to day activity in the country.

He paid tributes to the Indian soldiers who had shown their mettle in Ladakh (without mentioning the fist-fight with Chinese soldiers or their holding a part of Indian territory)

Talking about bio-diversity, he said that Project Dolphin will soon be introduced, and that a National Digital Health Mission is on the anvil which will eventually store all the health-related details of any given individual.  

Skipping talk of a date for marketing the much-touted corona vaccine in the country, he only said that India was working on it.

Listing the freebies the government handed out over the last six years that benefited people including farmers was the main thrust of his speech interspersed with Sanskrit cantos, Mr Modi emphasised the need for ‘vocal for local’ (meaning to buy indigenous goods) and said that ‘Make for the World’ should replace the earlier ‘Made in India’ announcement.  

Taking a telephonic reaction to his speech, Mr Arvind Mishra, working with a production house said that the content was a repetition of statements already made.

(The) “Middle-class community was expecting more from him but he mislead the nation by saying that online transactions, (and the) Internet, had eased the life of the common man,” he added.

An Indian housewife speaking to TTT, named Suman, said that it was not necessary to talk about the distribution of sanitary pads in rural areas.

“Most of the non-governmental organisations in the country have already been distributing the pads and teaching them about hygiene. This is absurd,” she pointed out.