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PM Modi must revisit his 2013 SRCC speech. The glass is half empty, not half full

PM Modi sounded bitter and frustrated at SRCC on Saturday. He did wear a smile as he played to the gallery. The tone, however, changed drastically once he started giving his ‘report card’ since his last visit.

Gen Z or OG (original gangster), not many things have changed in 13 years in the century-old Shri Ram College of Commerce in New Delhi. A lot, however, seemed to have changed for Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he returned to the campus last Saturday. For one, he was not the same Gujarat chief minister whose genial smile, disarming mannerism, and positive, futuristic outlook had left the audience at, and much beyond, the college spellbound in 2013. PM Modi sounded bitter and frustrated on Saturday. He did wear a smile as he played to the gallery, praising SRCC and its alumni. The tone, however, changed drastically once he started giving his ‘report card’ since his last visit.

He was angry with the so-called ‘dimagi naxals’ who wanted to see him fall. At one point, he seemed to suggest that he, an individual, and Bharat, the country, are no different. Talking about the challenges India faced during Covid-19 and the West Asia crisis, among others, he said, “My ‘admirers’ (read baiters) were happy that ‘ab Modi fansaa (Modi is trapped now), Modi is about to fall now, he can be crushed now’.” 

“But there is so much power in my countrymen’s blessings that the wishes of those wishing harm to Bharat remained unfulfilled,” PM Modi said. Essentially, wishing harm to him and to Bharat are one and the same thing.

PM Modi presented an elaborate report card on what he achieved since February 2013, when he had last visited the SRCC campus, in what was his launch pad for his successful bid for the BJP’s prime ministerial candidature. His speechwriter didn’t seem to have listened to his entire speech in 2013, beyond the half-full-and-half-empty glass analogy. His 2026 SRCC speech, on Saturday, would have probably sounded more convincing without references to the vision he had laid out for the country from the same college 13 years back. As it is, PM Modi himself might be disappointed with the huge gap........

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