Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to the country on Monday to empower women, fight corruption and stay united might reflect noble objectives but his record suggests a credibility crisis, particularly with communalism having acquired dreadful dimensions after his call for a 10-year moratorium on divisive politics.

Addressing the nation for the first time on Independence Day on August 15, 2014, Modi had said: “The path of violence hasn’t given us anything. I request you all to undertake a 10-year moratorium on communal, caste and class clashes to see positive results. We must believe in brotherhood and pledge to take the nation forward.”

This was followed immediately by a phase of communal violence that included lynchings and vigilantism, of toxic discourse on political platforms, television and social media, and even of a distinct majoritarian shift in governance as manifested in the retributive property demolitions by BJP governments.

BJP leaders including Union ministers have delivered polarising speeches that were accused of fuelling riots, and some Sangh parivar members have openly called for genocide against Muslims.

While these developments hang a question mark over Modi’s seriousness in matching action to his moratorium call, the Prime Minister has had a generally unimpressive record in fulfilling promises.

On Monday, he referred to none of his promises that were to be fulfilled by this year, such as the doubling of farmers’ income and housing and 24x7 electricity for all, or others like creating two crore jobs every year.

Nor did he mention the crushing inflation and unemployment, or the rise in religious polarisation.

While Modi stressed the need for unity and extolled the nation’s diversity as a strength, he has never responded to the open letters addressed to him by intellectuals, social activists and retired judges and bureaucrats about the systematic persecution of minorities.

Modi also identified corruption and nepotism/ dynastic politics as two major ailments afflicting the Indian polity. While attacking the Congress and other Opposition parties on dynastic politics has been second nature to the Prime Minister, he rather surprisingly suggested on Monday that previous governments had practised nepotism even in job recruitment and the sporting arena.

Rarely, though, had corruption relating to government recruitments acquired the dimensions of the Vyapam scam that stung the BJP government of Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Madhya Pradesh.

Modi said India was winning more medals in sports now because nepotism had ended.

While poverty and a lack of sporting infrastructure have always handicapped Indian sports, the country’s medal tally at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 was seven, just one more than its score in London 2012.

While India won 61 medals at the recent Commonwealth Games, its best performance with 101 medals came in 2010 —albeit with home advantage. In 2002 and 2014, India won 69 and 64 medals, respectively.

The Prime Minister’s attack on corruption comes against the backdrop of allegations that the central agencies are being used to target Opposition politicians with graft charges. In several instances, the investigations against the accused were dropped the moment they joined the BJP.

Modi alluded to cash seizures at some places and Nitish Kumar’s embrace of the RJD despite the graft conviction of Lalu Prasad.

While the agencies’ spectacular displays of cash hauls of Rs 20-30 crore have grabbed eyeballs and caused excitement in the media and in cyberspace, the Opposition has alleged that scams worth thousands of crores of rupees have gone without investigation. The Lokpal, the anti-corruption ombudsman, has been emasculated.

Only a few days ago, the government admitted that the scheduled commercial banks had written off Rs 10 lakh crore worth of loans. The major beneficiaries included fugitive diamond merchant Mehul Choksi.

The Congress accused Modi of setting a bad precedent by playing partisan politics from the ramparts of the Red Fort on Independence Day.

“He is a victim of his own rhetoric and a prisoner of his own pettiness. What happened to his lofty promises? He appeared tired and exhausted,” party media head Pawan Khera said.

“By referring to dynasty and nepotism, was he pointing to Amit Shah’s son (Jay Shah) who became the BCCI secretary after hitting a century at Lords? There is another minister whose son heads a big think tank.”

Khera added: “The country expected him to give his report card, to explain his hollow slogans. The 75th anniversary of Independence was a historic occasion. The Prime Minister was expected to give a mature speech; to demonstrate responsibility and seriousness. It was saddening to hear him.

“He was trying to belittle the stalwarts of the freedom movement, to whitewash history. We don’t want to turn it into a partisan battle today when we are celebrating Independence Day.”

Congress president Sonia Gandhi, however, in her Independence Day message alluded to Modi’s tendency to distort history.

“We have achieved a lot in the last 75 years. But today’s self-obsessed government is hell-bent on undermining the sacrifices and glorious achievements of the stalwarts of the freedom movement,” she said.

“This cannot be tolerated. The Congress will fiercely oppose any attempt to defame leaders like Gandhi-Nehru-Patel-Azad by distorting historical facts.”