In his 12th Independence Day speech — it was also his longest — the prime minister, Narendra Modi, touched upon subjects old and new. There was the familiar — all too familiar — refrain on the need for self-reliance in critical sectors. The objective is undoubtedly noble and necessary but the road towards this goal, even in Mr Modi’s third term, appears to be riddled with potholes. The swadeshi plank also needs to be seen in the context of Donald Trump’s punitive tariffs on India and their adversarial impacts on some segments of the economy. The extolling of India’s last military operation against Pakistan after the Pahalgam attack was old hat as well but what was new was the prime minister’s assertion of a national security shield for public places by 2035: the nation awaits the details. Another novelty was Mr Modi’s pledge of reforms to the goods and services tax. A reduction of the tax burden would be welcome and may spur consumer spending. But the impact of reduced GSTs on states’ revenue needs to be looked at carefully.

Political pundits would also be paying attention to two other aspects of Mr Modi’s speech. His waxing eloquent on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was not merely a form of homage to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s ideological spine; it was also an act born out of political necessity. There are whispers that the RSS’s frigid ties with the BJP before the last general election cost Mr Modi’s government a majority in Parliament. Reparations are thus necessary, especially before the BJP chooses its next party president. The other — new and disturbing — aspect has to do with Mr Modi’s dog whistling on the issue of illegal immigration: the prime minister announced a high-powered Demography Mission to counter the threat. It appears that Mr Modi and his party would double down on this polarising narrative even though there have been growing reports of bona fide Indian citizens — mostly Bengali migrants — being wrongfully targeted as ‘Bangladeshi infiltrators’. The Supreme Court has sought responses from eight states — the BJP is in power in these — from where such harassment has been reported. The prime minister’s words probably indicate the direction of the BJP’s electoral thrust in poll-bound Bengal.