(Kautilya Arya)
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to unfurl the national flag for the fifth consecutive year from the rampart of the historic Red Fort on 71st Independence Day.
He will be addressing the nation on August 15 in the backdrop of two back-to-back success.
His government recently defeated the no-confidence motion brought by the opposition and secondly NDA government succeeded in getting more allies to support the candidate of alliance partner to win the office of Vice Chairman of Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Indian Parliament).
In the backdrop of these two recent triumph, all eyes will be on the Prime Minister as to how he places the report card of his government’s performance for four years.
He has already given interviews to prominent dailies and an agency highlighting the achievments of his government on employment generation, Goods and Services Tax (GST) which he claimed will slowly bring economic unification of the country.
Though he condemned the growing incidents of lynching by so-called Hindutva forces on pretext of cow vigilantism and other social issues, it will be seen whether the Prime Minister inspires confidence among the minority communities.
Citizens would be eagerly waiting to know from Modi whether he is in favour of a specialised law to deal with the offences of mob lynching or not as suggested by the Supreme Court in a recent judgement.
His foreign policy is a matter of debate and experts will be keenly waiting to see how the prime minister sums up India’s diplomatic policy of his regime which has generated lot of interest worldwide.
More particularly, Modi’s view on Pakistan is awaited when cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, is all set take charge as Prime Minister in Islamabad.
Khan in his recent meeting with the Indian diplomat, has already expressed his priority that Kashmir will be the focal point between the two nation.
On the domestic front, though his party appears to be preparing better for the 2019 General Elections with Prime Minister himself expressing confidence that NDA will win more seats then the 2014 polls, some political pandits are of the view that the alliance has not been able to attract the dalits towards it.
It is expected that more announcements could be made for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes communities who have accused the government for not taking up seriously the law relating to them in the Supreme Court after which a new legislation has been brought.
Last but not the least, will he speak on the independence of judiciary when his government is accused of interfering with it, particularly on the issue of appointment of judges for the higher judiciary which was recently manifested on the confrontation the Centre had with the Supreme Court on the elevation of Justice K M Joseph as the judge of the apex court.