Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to announce the pilot launch of the Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Scheme from the ramparts of the Red Fort in his last Independence Day address before the Lok Sabha election in 2019.
The Independence Day address, the only speech that a Prime Minister is, by protocol, required to directly make to the people, is uniquely fashioned by the personality of the incumbent. In that sense, the announcement will be par for the course in the case of Mr. Modi as he has flagged several social sector programmes — from building of toilets to scholarships and financial inclusion — in his Independence Day speeches.
Two years ago, in a significant departure from his usual style, he referred to Balochistan and the region’s political struggle. In the year preceding the Lok Sabha election though, there is an expectation of a big announcement, something that could define the contours of the contest ahead.
“There is an expectation that the focus of the speech will be political, not so much on the economy but certainly on development and Prime Minister Modi’s own formulation of the idea of a ‘New India’,” said Sanjaya Baru, who was media adviser to Manmohan Singh during his first term as Prime Minister.
Mr. Modi’s speech on Wednesday will be interesting for several reasons, not least because it would be keeping in mind the upcoming polls.
“When Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee made his last speech before the 2004 polls, it was still August 2003, and the polls were scheduled for December 2004. It was only later that the polls were brought forward to May 2004 by dissolving Parliament early. Therefore, at that time, he was probably expecting to make another address to the nation the following year. In Dr. Manmohan Singh’s case, he was not the political face of the UPA government, which lay with the party chief,” Dr. Baru said.
He said Prime Minister Modi’s recent spate of interviews to newspapers revealed that there was some major messaging that he wanted to put across and therefore it was unlikely that Wednesday’s speech would be plain vanilla in any way.
While government officials say the usual drill with Mr. Modi is to send him as many inputs for the speech, with details of government programmes, he alone takes the final call on what he will speak. Not even his close aides will know the topics that he will touch upon. It is not likely that Prime Minister Modi will allow the opportunity to pass without some major messaging.