The Speech!

Now this is a bit of a departure from the stuff I usually think about..I just read the transcript of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's acceptance speech as he was awarded an honorary degree from Oxford University a couple of days ago. It was an excellently worded speech and probably was an excellent speech as well. It was entertaining and at the same time, left one wondering how much of the Bharatvasi-Angrez brotherly love and equal standing stuff was a well thought out political manoeuvre. However, he did seem quite sincere about it, and I am sure it went down well with the intended audience. Now here is the interesting part: when you are the prime minister of a country, your intended audience tends to include a heck of a lot more people than "your immediate audience".

Here is the link to the transcript:
http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/jul/12spec.htm

So who was the intended audience? I wondered then as I do now, because I was struck by the amount of stuff the leaders of the opposition could use as rich material for a fight! Sure enough, just as I had about formed a hazy idea that this was political dynamite, I saw a link a ways down, put about midway in the article, about how the BJP leaders were denouncing his speech. In fact, as you can see for yourself, the words were that the "PM should apologise for praising the British Rule".

Now this whole thing sets me thinking, see, the PM is no babe with no conception of the kind of impact his words have on the political chess-game. (BTW, this a case of mixed metaphor? My apologies to the purists :-P) I for one actually really liked his speech. I liked what he said, and I kinda found myself agreeing what he said about the British influence being very good for the development of India. I am against the whole philosophy of subjugating a nation and all that but in my opinion, we did benefit from the British, as noted by the PM.

And he has shot off a few barbs at the Brits as well, however subtle. That is why I actually liked the article best. There was a certain something, which felt a bit like gentle malice towards the Brits, and a wee bit of cocking a snoot at the opposition. Heh heh heh...If you can do it Mr. Advani, so can I and in a much more cultured way.

?