Welcome to The Political Fix by Rohan Venkataramakrishnan, a newsletter on Indian politics and policy. To get it in your inbox every week,...
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The Big Story: Neti neti
India kicked off its 75th year celebrations on Sunday, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his annual Independence Day address from the Red Fort in Delhi calling for the country to be transformed over the next 25 years.
Aside from announcing some relatively minor new initiatives and making little mention of the horrific effects of India’s Covid-19 second wave earlier this year, Modi added a new element to his now-unwieldy slogan that was originally (and misleadingly) aimed at assuaging fears of majoritarian politics: Sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas – and now sabka prayas. (All together, everyone’s development, everyone’s trust – and now everyone’s efforts).
As India geared up for what is likely to be a year full of debates about the events and decisions of the last seven-and-a-half decades, evaluations of how far the country has come and questions about the trajectory India is taking (see Pratap Bhanu Mehta and Mukul Kesavan), one warning shot about...
