(Photo by Saad Akhtar)

A dearth of reason

26 November 2015

A couple of days ago, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke at a gathering of non-resident Indians in Singapore. As is now custom, his speech split opinion.

I remarked that the speech was quite uninspiring, predictably bombastic, and carried jokes that were hardly funny. And that the rest of the evening’s function was a pretty embarrassing affair. I said this because I was truly disappointed.

Here is a selection of responses I got from people (with my thoughts in brackets):

1. Why don’t you listen to Rahul Gandhi’s speeches for a change? You many enjoy them. (I do listen to his speeches actually, and they often make me cringe. But how does that have anything to do with my views on Modi’s speech?)
2. If you are so anti-Modi, then you shouldn’t have attended in the first place. (I was talking about a speech made by a person, not the person himself).
3. Inspiration is subjective. What didn’t inspire you did seem to leave most people in attendance enthralled. (I fully agree).
4. He is an Indian PM looking to inspire overseas Indians. Not surprised that he didn’t strike a chord with someone from Nepal. So as a Nepali, why did you even bother attending? (I don’t know where to start addressing this one, because I found this wrong at so many levels. Perhaps I could say that as a Nepali, I may actually have had a neutral view on a speech? Or I could also say that as a person of Indian origin who has lived in India for 12 years and has several friends and family members living there, at least some of the things Modi said “should” have struck a chord with me. Or I could just say that as a political science guy, my curiosity got the better of me — he is supposed to be the great leader, after all).
5. One viewpoint was that the speech may not have had a lot of content per se, but Modi has already done a lot in one year. And that he should get a full term before he is judged. (He may have done a lot. But again, I haven’t said that he hasn’t.)
6. Some assumed the opposite — that I was looking for oratory skills and not content. (Well, I was looking for both and I found neither).

Do you notice something?

I did, and I found it deeply unsettling. That not one person actually asked me why I thought the speech was underwhelming; and no one sought to engage in any sort of a discussion. Various conclusions were quickly drawn and that was that. In many ways, this small anecdote is quite reflective of the way things are becoming in India — accuse first, understand later.

Where has the reason gone?