Narendra Modi’s Teachers’ Day Speech
September 6, 2014
http://www.elections.in/blog/narendra-modis-teachers-day-speech/
Consider the impact that Narendra Modi’s Teachers’ Day address could have on young impressionistic minds of school going children! Wouldn’t it have a lasting impression? We have seen US President Barrack Obama interacting with students at St Xavier’s College, Mumbai during his India visit and we still remember it. Yet, Modi’s interaction with students is more ubiquitous because of his choice of the date – the Teachers’ Day!
Modi’s Teachers’ Day Address : Meticulous Exercise
Wasn’t his live address to millions of students across the country through electronic mediums and digital technology a grand spectacle? It did require meticulous planning and swift execution and Modi effectively displayed that he is a great organiser of spectacular events.
School timings were shifted when Modi addressed from New Delhi’s Manekshaw Auditorium in the presence of about 1,000 students of government-run Sarvodaya Vidyalayas. Considering an impatient young audience, his address was short and crisp and more time was assigned to the interaction session with students of different states via video conferencing.
His move is being eulogised by his supporters, who point out that this was unprecedented that school children from across the country openly shared their views and exchanged their ideas with any Prime Minister. Modi himself acknowledged during his almost two-hour-long interaction, that never before were the school students seen occupying so much space on television screens!
Why did Modi not choose Children’s Day ?
Yet his opponents are wary of his move. Congress leader Manish Tewari has gone to the extent of appealing parents that they should challenge the circulars on Modi’s speech to be telecast in the school in the court and that such a step is legally incorrect.
Wouldn’t it have been more apt for the Prime Minister to address the school children on 14thNovember – the birthday of India’s first Prime Minister Chacha (Jawahar Lal) Nehru – celebrated as Children’s Day? Was there politics involved in the selection of the day?
We celebrate 5th September as Teachers’ Day to pay our homage to our former President Dr Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan – a great teacher himself. Isn’t this a day meant to pay our respect to teachers who play more important role in our development than anyone else?
So, instead of students, wouldn’t it have been more apt for Modi to address teachers live through digital technology across the country and address their problems? Wouldn’t it have been a better tribute to our teachers and a morale booster to them considering the pitiable conditions a majority of them live in? Isn’t it true that teaching in our country – particularly teaching in schools – is not a preferred vocation?
In an apparent justification of his move, Modi said in his address –“-The importance of Teachers’ Day is diminishing. The day has just been reduced to be focussed on teachers getting awards…”
Why Modi did not choose to address teachers?
We all know that most of our teachers live a miserable life because of poor salaries and struggle to survive through private tuitions ?
Modi obviously is not a disconnect from the present situation: “It is rather sad that not many students today want to take up teaching as a profession…”
Wouldn't it have been apt for the government to find ways to compensate the teachers on this auspicious days than rather interact with the children?
Was Modi Politicising Teachers’ Day ?
Modi’s detractors accuse him of playing politics on this solemn occasion of Teacher’s Day. That he was rather too keen to nurture a constituency for himself than anything else. (Can we say it is a rather too far- fetched imagination that Modi now aims at the 2019 when the next general elections are due and millions of these school children will attain voting age?)
This brings me to the question that I raised earlier. Indeed, there is a need of some pep talk from a top ranking leader – a Prime Minister – for school going children. This, indeed, is a welcome move. Yet, why couldn’t Modi wait for the Children’s Day to deliver such an address?
Modi’s politics has all along been against the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. Remember, he avoided naming Nehru in his very first Independence day speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort though he did name (Mahatma) Gandhi, Sardar (Vallabhbhai Patel) and late Prime Minister (Lal Bahadur) Shastri for their contribution to the development of India. He even announced disbanding the Planning Commission – a brainchild of Jawaharlal Nehru!
There is no doubt about Prime Minister Modi’s great oratorical skills. Perhaps he is one of the most powerful speakers of modern times. He himself disclosed in his Teacher’s day address that as a youngster he got invitations to deliver speeches, obviously as a pracharak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. As the BJP’s star campaigner in the general elections last year, he did held millions spellbound with his mesmerisingly articulate speeches – that catapulted the saffron brigade to the seat of power at the Centre.
So, what next? Can we expect an equally eloquent speech by the prime minister on the importance of love in this violence and terrorism hit society on the next Valentine day? Or, an equally articulate speech on the delays in passing the women’s reservation bill in Parliament, on the next Women’s day?
After all, women and young lovers too are important constituencies. Aren’t they?
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