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No more hesitations of history: Capitol Hill is Modi's greatest speech ever

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DailyBiteJun 08, 2016 | 22:34

No more hesitations of history: Capitol Hill is Modi's greatest speech ever

It came close to Jawaharlal Nehru's tryst with destiny speech way back in August 1947, on the eve of Independence. And even though Narendra Modi, in his characteristic style, made no reference to India's first prime minister despite harping on democracy and secularism, what he said in Capitol Hill before a jampacked US Congress, was in fact Nehruvian in its scale and ambition.

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From Mahatma Gandhi to Martin Luther King, to broaching the idea of "delegitimising terror", to claiming no intellectual property rights on Yoga, Narendra Modi's speech was just just historic, it in fact, in his own words, overcame the "hesitations of history". That's a phrase that will go down in history in golden letters.

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PM Modi's speech in Capitol Hill has floored critics and broken the internet.

From emphasising on cooperation and strategic alliance that the India-US ties are all about at present, sharing common challenges and scopes, Modi "covered all the bases", and the Congress reciprocated with a string of standing ovations, not just for his candour and humour, but for the sheer weight and grand scale of a vision put forth thus.

Calling it the "defining partnership of 21st century", Modi sold India as a "natural ally" of the US, clearly taking no unsubtle digs at Pakistan, and perhaps even China, as he claimed a stake in the Pacific pie. This, a day after US president Barack Obama securing the American backing for India's entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group, is surely a political assertion almost unmatched in the choppy waters of foreign policy.

A nod for the diaspora, a big shout out to climate cooperation and an emphasis on renewable energy turned out to be the icing on the well-baked cake of superlative speechmaking.

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Back home, even the staunchest of Modi-baiters were impressed. Even though many of them lamented the complete omission of the Nehruvian legacy in enshrining democracy, most were compelled to acknowledge just how Nehruvian in tone and tenor the speech was.

However, many bemoaned how Modi's bombastic rhetoric fell so unduly short of the reality back home. Exactly as the prime minister was singing paeans to freedom and liberty on the US soil, over here a reign of terror and cultural censorship has marred artistic and political expressions.

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Paul Ryan and Joe Biden look on as Narendra Modi delivers a power-packed speech in Capitol Hill.

 

Many took to Twitter to express precisely this contradiction. Does Prime Minister Narendra Modi actually believe in his own speech? Is he hardselling the future over the carcass of a rotting present?

Last updated: June 09, 2016 | 12:37
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