Speech by Dr. Pranab Mukherjee could have been little better

From an audience point of view

Dr. Pranab Mukherjee did it again, as he turned his own esteemed presence at the RSS event in Nagpur into a NO Event for opposition and the current government. This was prudence of a stalwart politician who attempted to be neutral and hence instead of playing himself took a seat with the audience while speaking from the podium. The mileage this news has picked up since his acceptance of this invitation is out of proportion. His own daughter, a member of Congress Party, did not convince the man for this one event. And, he proved that old school charm will always hold elegance no matter how much advanced his following generation has been since then.

Categorically the speech can be divided into two halves.

Starting with the concept of a nation, nationalism and patriotism making one BHARAT. Following with kings, acceptance of Buddhism and in the same narration quoting, Muslim invaders and mercantile company invasion. We the people of India guess that Battle of Plassey was ignored for convenience when he used “Muslim invaders” instead of “Mughal rulers or kings”. In that battle Nawab of Bengal was defending Hindustan, the Bharat. However, the date for the same is 23rd June 1757. And some reason there were too many sevens, which we shall discover.

Although, the ancient kings have had one religion & that is governance, with exceptions that some ancient governance were motivated on religion too, but rarely.While narrating saga of Bharat he omitted the word Hindu in his entire speech except in one instance that was expected from an astute and stalwart diplomat. Not sure, if he was using numerology while addressing the gathering with the mention of SEVEN often than a normal. This can be traced in his speech when he quoted 7th Century historian of China with a lot of emphasis and noticeable intonation along with the mention of 7 religions groups while delivering a speech of 7th June.

The entire speech interpreted as a lopsided waste of time and energy, but I for one would still credit discount for a speech like this for speaking what the audience wanted to listen and by saying what he wanted to say unveils in the second half of the speech.The second half of the speech where he came on the RSS was when he spoke out loud on intolerance and violent behaviour vis-à-vis peace, harmony and happiness in the country.

I have been a big fan of Dr. Pranab Mukherjee but somehow today’s speech was banal. During his tenure as a president he came against the intolerant behaviour in the society which he continued in few and minced words even in today’s speech.

One consistence and evident think that came as a biggest drawback in the speech was that he understated the role of minorities in the nation-building process of the nation Bharat.

The speech missed the following:

· Economic Ideology

· Development model against nationalism model

· Science & innovation against a history of religions

The speech was not effective because of the following:

· Too many quotes from too many people

· Classification of history based on religion

· Without effective and tangible solutions

The speech was good because of the following:

· It was not an election campaign but yet showed RSS a mirror.

· It was a positive attempt for harmony building in the society that too managed single handily… wherein faith is a personal thing and this personal thing alone can produce natural nationalism of a superior order.

· He gave a message to Congress Party that his advisory to the party is still available, provided they want to listen to him.

Overall, Dr. Pranab Mukherjee could have easily made this speech into a game changer for the next general elections but he chose to avoid that path. He could have spoken more of himself and his own ideas but still his educations reveals that modesty is natural to him. He could have easily galvanised masses here onward for the next few state elections but he did not spoke from a party but from his political stance. In the end, he spoke what was expected for and by the gathering.

Even after all these hurdles, he still could have delivered a better and direct speech because it is rare that people will understand the message of harmony juxtapose to classification of religions in nation building with the overarching and intertwined concepts of a nation, nationalism and patriotism. The speech was more of an intellectual dialogue where the audience is aware enough to pick up a reference point for constructing the story.

With the social media advent, even old schools boys should realise that direct communication is a better communication, at least when big politician address masses. Perhaps, he wanted it is so in the wake they will not remember it.

For the politician Dr. Pranab Mukherjee is — one take away from the speech — to have harmony you need to have different notations played together.