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New Delhi: In the many speeches that Narendra Modi, as prime minister, had delivered at public rallies since 2014, the ones that he had given during his latest visit to the Northeast from September 13 to 14, stand out as examples of how to act as a public speaker when caught in two radically different circumstances in a short interval of time. 

Modi, without a doubt, has been a subject of study for a section of political observers and researchers because of his speeches, which several times are laced with communally loaded references. These are subtle, though sometimes not, and often form the core of his appeal. These speeches have in the past, excited the base and helped the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) win elections. 

Let’s look at the sum of the two speeches he gave in his half-a-day trip to Manipur on September 13, and the one he delivered at a massive rally in Assam’s communally-volatile Darrang on September 14. 

This pit stop to Manipur drew attention because the prime minister was found missing in action when a bloody ethnic conflict had engulfed the state even though a much-touted double engine sarkar of his party was functioning in May 2023. 

Worse, the conflict has continued to fester without the sign of a solution for peace anytime soon. At least 60,000 people are still living without the certainty of ever going home. Those who have lost their near and dear ones haven’t got justice yet. 

The state’s economy is in shambles.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a roadshow in Imphal, Manipur. Photo: PTI via PMO

Parallel to local interest, for Modi watchers too, it was a moment to watch how he faced a battered public in a state which saw the breakdown of any double-engine sarkar so completely for the first time in the country, so much so that Delhi had to clamp down President’s Rule, after putting in suspended animation a government run by the BJP. 

The dream of ‘Acche Din‘ went awry in Manipur like nowhere else.

In the past one and a half years, Modi had visited Assam more than once but hadn’t done a stopover to Manipur in the neighbourhood even after the people of that state continued to plead him for one, in the ardent hope that their conditions would get better with the prime minister’s visit. 

Late as he may be, will he visit the relief camps finally? Will he speak about a road map to peace in his public speeches? More importantly, will he tell the upset lot why he didn’t visit them? After all, Modi, as their prime minister, was accountable to them.  

Modi’s visits are meticulously choreographed, planned to the last detail to ensure his Father Christmas image remains intact. Naturally then, in the run-up to the........

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