Now that we have an idea of what Mr Modi looks like at the stroke of the midnight hour, and have also learnt how to install a teleprompter on a mobile phone, let us move on to some other aspects of the Jantar Mantar protests not yet reported upon.

Nothing better exhibits, or symbolises, the decline of our republic and its leadership quality than a comparison of two of our prime ministers speaking at the midnight hour to the nation.

On 14 August 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, delivered to the world his iconic and immortal speech about India’s tryst with destiny, acknowledged to be among the finest words ever uttered by any statesman — a speech brimming over with pride, a sense of achievement, vision and hope for a new-born country.

On the midnight of 23 July 2026, our current prime minister, Mr Narendra Modi, delivered a short video speech via his mobile phone, not to celebrate his country’s freedom but to dig himself out of a hole of his own making — a jaded address reeking of insincerity, dissimulation and empty promises. Whereas Nehru’s words electrified a whole nation, Mr Modi’s words, deservedly, will be remembered only by his speechwriters — with, one hopes, a lot of mortification. Hopefully, we will not find them in our NCERT history books now that Mr Pradhan is himself history, but one can never be sure.

Every joke, said George Orwell, is a revolution. And oh, boy! Was he right!

For the CJP (Cockroach Janata Party) did begin life as a joke. The inadvertent raconteur was none other than our own Chief Justice of India, the venerable and honourable Surya........

© National Herald