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Stale food stinks. Swinging between the two pet themes of “2014 se pahle (Before 2024)” and “2047 mein Viksit Bharat (Progressive Bharat in 2047)”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi failed to cook up anything new in his Independence Day speech, choosing to serve stale food instead.

Like children singing nursery rhymes, the prime minister rattled away: Make-in-India, Aatmanirbhar Bharat, fragile-five, Start Up India, Nal se Jal (Water from taps), gas connection, house for the poor and, of course, toilets. You have heard it all a million times. Stale food.

As is his wont, Modi hawked Viksit Bharat as the “big dream” because India can’t manage with “small dreams” anymore. It’s like an irreversible psychological occupation till 2047. It’s a political invasion of the gullible mind.

It’s a cunning ploy to numb critical faculties. Wait and applaud. Don’t wake up to smell the stink of the stale food. Don’t cancel the contract. Promises will be repackaged; dreams will come wrapped in new shining papers.

Saptdhara (Seven streams), the prime minister was kind enough to coin an enticing phrase. Liked it? Feel the phonetic effect. Flow with the semantic stream. So what Saptdhara is the same old pond, containing weeds of failed schemes.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Red Fort in New Delhi on August 15, 2026. Photo: PTI/Salman Ali.

The first of the seven elements sold as new is ‘manufacturing’ that the much-hyped Make in India envisioned way back in 2014. Cut the hype and what is left is disaster.

The share of manufacturing before 2014 in GDP was between 15 to 17%. In 2026, it hasn’t moved an inch. Oblivious of this reality, Modi hoped India will become the centre of the global supply chain. India’s share in global merchandise exports is 1.8% despite 12 years of Make in India flimflam.

The second element of Saptdhara is food processing. A government that sells ‘food processing’ as a new vision after 12 years in power is either intellectually bankrupt or a charlatan.

The third is technology and innovation. Doesn’t this innocence of a government wallowing in the........

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