Learn English with Akash Banerjee. In this Oxford Union debate from April 23, 2024, he examines whether India is on the right path under Prime Minister Modi by exploring economic data, historical parallels, and democratic principles. Practice your listening skills, expand your vocabulary, and discover key rhetorical techniques to boost your English fluency.
Who This Speech Is For
Learners interested in political commentary, Indian democracy, and global perceptions of progress.
Those who want to improve their ability to discuss governance, media narratives, and national identity.
Intermediate to advanced English learners studying critical thinking, debate-driven, and storytelling speech techniques.
How This Speech Helps Your English
Learn how persuasive argumentation and humor are combined to challenge assumptions.
Expand vocabulary related to politics, democracy, economics, and governance.
Observe how contrasts, rhetorical questions, and real-world examples build a powerful narrative.
Understand how emotional intelligence and sharp wit can enhance public discourse.
Why This Speech Matters
A sharp and thought-provoking speech on India’s political journey and the resilience of democracy.
Demonstrates how national progress must be evaluated beyond individuals and headlines.
Encourages critical thinking, historical awareness, and balanced perspectives on national issues.
”Small steps build big futures
Transcript
Thank you, sir, for that amazing electoral speech. It was almost as if I’m going to press a button right now and vote, and vote Modi out of power. It was very ironical that you spent, what, I don’t know, 25 minutes talking about the danger that India faces. And at the end of your speech, you land up saying Modi’s aura is on the wane. If it’s on the wane, then what’s the problem? Why are you so scared if it’s on the wane?
But the debate till now has progressed as ChatGPT research. One side coming and saying, “Oh, after 2014, everything is absolutely spic and span. India is shining.” On the other side, after 2014, everything has gone down. That’s the level that we have seen till now. I hope, with Prashant-sa, the level goes up beyond this. But I hope that the opposition comes up with better arguments, because at this point of time, there is nothing but statistics. And as a school debater will tell you, you don’t rely your entire speech on just statistics. Because even a class eight debater will tell you, there are three kinds of lies: white lies, black lies, and statistics. So I’m gonna stay away from overburdening this audience with just statistics. We’re gonna talk about India a little bit, and a little less about Modi. That seems to be an obsessive angle here. We are forgetting what is bigger, India or Modi.
So there are two basic points in this debate’s topic. Modi’s India, we’ll get to that in a bit. And where is India going? Is it going in the right direction or not? You have a very simple job, to prove to this House that it is going in the wrong direction, not that it is making mistakes. Are you trying to tell me that Congress never made mistakes? Are you trying to tell me the CPM never made mistakes? What are we talking about here? You’re counting down mistakes. Are we here to just count good things versus bad things? Let’s go a little beyond that. India is bigger than that.
You know, look at England from India, okay? I’m gonna give you the Indian perspective. If you switch on a broadcast and watch the headlines, what do you see? Oh, Brexit. Oh, Boris. Oh, cost of living. Oh, England is going down. It’s a pretty gloomy, gloomy picture. So I thought, “Really, things are that bad?” Are they gonna start taxing us again? Threefold tax? You know, but it’s not funny. You know, you guys took the Kohinoor and now you’re charging us how much? How much did I pay that day? £32 to watch and have a look at the Kohinoor and the other crown jewels? And then, £6 for a fake Kohinoor. I bought it actually. Anyways.
But, you know, when I was doing a little bit of research, I see the other side. And when I lived in London for the last one week, I saw a buzzing metropolis. I saw buildings going up. I didn’t see a country in decline or collapse. And I also realized that people, average people, are driving around in Beemers and Mercs, because, well, guess what? We might have beaten you guys in overall GDP… And trust me, it’s a celebration point in India. Good, we should celebrate. But when it comes down to per capita, and that’s the finer point, you guys are sitting at $45,000 and we are sitting at $2,300. We are competing with Bangladesh. So there is, of course, a problem and I am just trying to tell you that, let’s go beyond this headline. And yeah, after 2014, this was good, this was bad, this was good. The debate can extend for the full night.
Now, let’s stretch our imagination and answer this question to me, sirs. At what point of time was India in the right direction? Which decade was India in the right direction? 1950s, when everybody was talking about Balkanization? This House would have debated, is India going to become another Europe? Is there going to be Balkanization? 1960s, if we were going to have this debate in this House, we would have said, “Is India going to starve?” Because, well, there was famine all around. In the ’70s, we would have said, “Has democracy finished in India?” Because there was one lady called Indira Gandhi who came and imposed emergency. Well, she was thrashed after that very soon and reduced to the footnotes in history, besides lending her name to the Indira Gandhi International Airport. We don’t hear too much about Indira Gandhi. A lady at one point of time was, “India is Indira, Indira is India,” something that we often sort of hear today.
Then, let’s come to the 1980s when there was economic collapse, literally Hindu rate of growth. Then the ’90s, when there was political upheaval and coalition governments falling. Then there was 2000s, where there was terrorism all over the place. And yes, there is a problem of communal politics, I admit. I’m not gonna shy away. I am going to admit to the fact that, yes, there is a problem of communal politics. And that has been harvested by politicians, and that is what politicians do. They harvest issues. And maybe in another 10 years, if I’m lucky enough to be invited again to this august House, we might be debating something on the environment. Because, well, we are sitting on a time bomb. Fifty-six of the most polluted cities in the world, out of one hundred, belong to India.
So first and foremost, let’s change this mindset that we are in a wrong direction, because we are not. There is never a right direction or wrong direction. India is larger than one person trying to set the country in one direction. India has always stammered, stopped, hopped, jumped, but there is never a great leap. We are not China. We will take our time. It’s an elephant, remember, guys? It’ll take its own time. We are a behemoth. There are issues that we are facing, but we are still on the right track.
And I am not going to sit here and count the numerous economic angles to this, how we are a bright spot while the rest of the world is staring at recession. England, barely missing recession, Germany, getting into recession. And as a matter of fact, even the World Bank has been saying that not only overall GDP, but per capita GDP, India is the largest, fastest-growing large economy. So as far as the economy is concerned, there are issues, there is concern, but we are much better off than the rest of the world. So let’s take the economy aside. Everybody is in a worse-off state than us.
Then besides us having losses and having wins, let’s come to another point which I find very interesting. We are held to the standard of democracy. I, on my channel, scream day in and day out that we need to be better. Agreed. But who am I competing with? Whose standard of democracy do you want us to live up to? The UK? You guys had the Magna Carta in 1215, if I’m not wrong? And then King Charles I was hiding in Oxford, then he was dragged out and then beheaded in the 17th century or whenever? You guys took centuries to get your democratic act right and even now… Well, let’s not get into what’s happening at this point of time. But I am just saying look at seventy-five, eighty years. Was England practicing good democracy after the Magna Carta? 16th century, 17th century, 18th century, when? How much time did it take you?
Let’s take the USA. 1776 and then seventy, eighty, ninety years down the line, civil war. Ripped apart the nation. Everything had to start anew and even then you had the Jim Crow laws, et cetera, et cetera. I am not saying India is perfect. I am admitting to the lots of flaws that India has at this point of time. What I’m trying to tell you is that a democracy will not leapfrog and one person can’t hold back such a massive country that was set on a path in 1947. And to say that one person can decide the destiny of this nation is to do injustice to the country called India.
More information. Sorry, over drinks. The point that is very, very important for us to understand is that one person may try, and we’ve had a dictator who tried but failed. Allow me to elaborate on this point a little bit. I know this is a little counterintuitive, but let me explain. If you see the 2019 election results in India, because today the other issue that I have with this topic is Modi’s India. And because right path or wrong path is going to be decided by Modi’s India, let’s try and analyze. Is it really Modi’s India? Why are we giving Modi so much importance to decide that he controls the destiny of India? I don’t agree with it. So what I’m trying to tell you is that India’s path and destiny cannot be decided by Modi. Here’s why.
In 2019, BJP peaked. How much does it have? 37, 38 percent of the popular vote. It’s a big thing, I agree. In 1989, post-1989, the biggest vote share, 303 seats, well done. But the fact of the matter still is that out of ten voters, you only have four. You don’t have the rest of the six. The rest of the six voted for somebody else. The problem is that the rest of the six can’t get their act together. The CPM, the Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party to which Prashant Bhushan belonged earlier but understood the problems in the party. What gives people in the BJP confidence to say to any argument that you might make, “Only Modi will come. Father of the nation.” I’m not saying this. Spokesperson Sumit Patra has said this. “Supreme Leader.” These are words uttered by a very senior spokesperson of the BJP. What gives them this confidence? The confidence that they have comes from a very, very fractured opposition that can’t get its act together, that can’t decide to work together. Some progress has been made. Now they’re saying that they’re going to have a meeting in Patna, I believe, and many of the opposition parties are coming together.
Mind you, that if the opposition gets its act together, if they stop cutting each other’s votes, then Modi, like Indira Gandhi, in another five to ten years can easily be reduced to the footnotes of history. Forget him changing the path of India. I absolutely believe that. The question is whether the Congress, whether the CPM… 61 seats in 2004. I wonder what happened after that. So there is, of course, a problem of the opposition not understanding social media, not understanding the younger generation, not understanding how hard work really happens, how Panna Pramukhs draw people to the voting booth. So there is a lot of work that the opposition needs to do, which does not happen.
I’ll end with just one simple point. A lot of people thought Trump was also going to change India and as a matter of fact, Trump got, if I’m not wrong, 73.6 million votes, the highest for a sitting US president ever. It just so happened that Biden even got better than that. So there is always a threat to democracy. There are always people trying to change the direction of a country. It is, of course, the opposition, what the leaders of the opposition, what the alternative leadership does that can save or at least stop this change of track that is being attempted.
So the point is very simple. My point is very, very clear and I hope that I’m refuted on this. I hope that I’m corrected on this. That A, the path that India has set on is too huge to be changed by one person. Karnataka is a very small example. I’m not even getting into the elections. If you want to take a quick look at the map of India and how many states the BJP actually rules, it’ll be surprising for you. So, it depends on how the leaderships work. The only reason why we are debating this, I believe, in this House, is because the opposition of India really failed and allowed one person to grab so much of mind space. That’s all.
And that can change within months, if not a few years. I’ll end with a simple challenge. The opposition, I hope… There’s two speakers still left. They just need to prove me one thing. It’s not a question… And by the way, right or left, you know? “Right turn,” in quotes, as you mentioned, sir. I can also mention “left turn” that we have been, for the last seventy years, when liberalization was not allowed and we starved ourselves. Had we liberalized much more, maybe our per capita income today would have been $20,000, maybe. So, we have been stuck at the left turn also. So, it’s not a question of right turn or left turn. The question is, are we on the right path? Yes, there have been blockages. Yes, communal politics has been exploited, just like you had exploitation of caste politics, just like you had exploitation of poverty politics. “Remove poverty,” which the Congress would remember very well. In the same way communal politics and a religious revivalism has been weaponized. I agree to that. I admit to that. The question is, can you, sir, counter that and help us again get back to a very fast pace on direction? Have we meandered a little bit? I would agree. Have we not done the best that we could have? I absolutely agree. But are we on the wrong path? I am not getting that. Please let me know where it is that India has taken a U-turn or completely gone on a wrong path. That is what you need to prove to this House, which unfortunately hasn’t been done till now. Thank you.
