Saturday, Aug 16, 2003
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By Harish Khare
The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, waves after addressing the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort.
The Prime Minister was addressing the nation for the sixth consecutive time from the ramparts of the Red Fort on the occasion of Independence Day. Mr. Vajpayee permitted himself a moment of self-congratulation when he pointed out that the National Democratic Alliance Government had completed five years. "All previous experiments in running coalition Governments at the Centre had failed. We have succeeded," he noted.
Leader of the Opposition, Sonia Gandhi, leaving the venue after the Prime Minister's speech.
In his 30-minute speech in Hindi, the Prime Minister said that India stood tall and proud in the comity of nations and there was all-round prosperity and affluence. According to him, the world saluted India as the largest democracy, as an emerging global economic power, as the confluence of a modern nation and an ancient civilisation, and as a powerful country dedicated to peace. Admitting that the road to peace with Pakistan would be bumpy, Mr. Vajpayee emphasised the need nonetheless to begin the journey. As he put it, "let us open some new doors, new windows, and new light-holes in the walls that divide us". By participating in the free and fair Assembly elections, the people of Jammu and Kashmir had "rebuffed terrorism from across the border," he said and declared that India would not be divided a second time on communal lines in the name of "right to self-determination". He noted the gradual integration of the people of Kashmir with the rest of the country and said that mobile telephone services would be made available from next week in the State. Mr. Vajpayee told the nation that his Government was alive to its responsibility to "provide equal opportunities" to the disadvantaged sections of society and to "make them partners in the system". He asserted that his Government had "removed the difficulties that had cropped up in the proper implementation of the policy on reservation". On matters political, he was less than expansive. He patted his Government on the back for not discriminating against the State Governments run by the Opposition parties. He tentatively noted the progress on the question of reservation for women in Parliament and the State Legislatures, and commended the one-third "double-member seats" proposal as worthy of a consensus.
`You can book your PM'
The only other political reform the Prime Minister talked about was the "need for greater commitment and accountability in our system of governance". In this context, he said his Government had decided to "enact the Lok Pal Bill", which he thought was an evidence of his Government's desire to "fight corruption at all levels". "In spite of opposition from some people, I have personally brought the Prime Minister within the ambit of its investigation, so that you can even book your Prime Minister if he commits any wrong". More than half the Prime Minister's speech was devoted to enumerating the gains on the economic front during the last five years. Mr. Vajpayee was most forthright in asserting that "in just one generation, India can be liberated from the curse of poverty, unemployment and under-development. This is not a daydream. It can be turned into reality". Mr. Vajpayee concluded by reciting a poem, "together, we have to march" he wrote 40 years ago. It was a statesman-like address without being combatively partisan. Mr. Vajpayee's body-language was confident, his prose muscular and his performance robust.
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