Politics can sometimes change what appeals and wishes can’t. For over two years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose not to speak on a host of issues the Opposition wished him to. Be it the arrest of JNU students, claims of rising intolerance, Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula’s suicide, beef controversy and rising attacks by cow vigilantes, and till recently unrest in Kashmir, his silence led many to compare him with his predecessor Manmohan Singh, who was rather infamous in the social media as a ‘silent PM’.

PM Modi’s silence also earned him a moniker of ‘Maun Modi’ from some of his critiques. It is not that Modi remained literally silent throughout. He did speak on occasions on matters of his interest and visited several countries. While his silence irked many in the country, he attempted to rouse Indianness of the expatriates living beyond the seas. But all of this changed, so fast, so soon.

In just seven days, India is no longer led by another ‘silent’ PM. He has started speaking so much on previously politically sensitive issues that sometimes the routine criticism posed by the Opposition seems less convincing than it was during Modi’s ‘silent’ days.

Modi’s transformation started at his first Town Hall meeting on August 6. While most of his interaction with callers seemed an extension of his monthly ‘Mann Ki Baat’ programme on radio, he ended the programme with a bomb — an unprecedented attack on cow vigilantes, which even the Opposition leaders have so far failed to match.

Modi followed this on the second day with another speech in Hyderabad, with another attack on ‘gau rakshaks’ and also on those committing atrocities against Dalits. He tweeted, his ministers and party leaders spoke in unison and even the RSS pitched in to reiterate the lines of the PM in the following days. By August 12, Modi had somehow left the Opposition with little to attack him for, except Kashmir. He changed it too, taking the attack to Pakistan and raising the atrocities conducted by Pakistan in Pak Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Balochistan. The same Balochistan had once left then PM Singh and the UPA government embarrassed in 2009.

Modi carried forward his speaking days on India’s 70th Independence Day today and people are liking it. How much the so called ‘bhakti’ trolls would continue to like him, after his attack on ‘gau rakshaks’ remains to be seen.

[related-post]

Behind the rapid transformation, however, lies political calculations. Modi’s inability to take a stand against RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s call for review of caste-based reservation system and speak on the issue of ‘rising intolerance’, cost him and the BJP Bihar. Both the party and the PM can’t afford to repeat the same in UP, even if the cow vigilantes claim to be a part of the larger Hindutva family. Modi has started speaking. He has changed discourse over Kashmir, by declaring Pakistan as the one responsible for all problems in Kashmir and announcing a huge financial package of Rs 80,000 crore for the state.

But will it help the country? Be it a prolonged silence, or even sudden loudness, both are dangerous. For the one can bring a storm, the other may numb the senses.