Every August 15, the prime minister of India stands before the Red Fort in Delhi and speaks to a nation that is at once ancient and young, confident and anxious, proud of its achievements and uncertain about its direction. The Independence Day speech has, over the years, become a familiar ritual of national celebration: a catalogue of schemes, achievements, milestones and promises. But perhaps the most powerful Independence Day speech is one that refuses the comfort of triumphalism. I sometimes wish I could write the prime minister’s Independence Day speech. Not because I would want to put words into his mouth or because I imagine that my political preferences should become the language of the nation. I wish I could write it because I would like to imagine what such a speech could sound like if it began with an honest audit of the year gone by. To possess the courage to acknowledge failures alongside achievements, anxieties alongside aspirations and wounds alongside triumphs. That, perhaps, would be the greatest service a prime minister can render to the republic on its Independence Day.To speak to citizens not as voters, but as fellow citizens capable of hearing the truth.The courage to look into the mirrorSuch a speech would not be an exercise in political self-flagellation, nor would it be an invitation to the opposition to score points. It would be something much more difficult: an act of statesmanship. It would recognise that the country does not need a government that merely tells citizens how well everything is going. It needs a government capable of looking into the mirror.An Independence Day speech should, therefore, begin with an audit of not just what we have achieved, but also of where we have fallen short.Also read: How My Grandmother Remembered India’s First Independence DayThe first admission would have to concern inequality. India has grown. The economy has expanded, infrastructure has improved and India has acquired greater visibility in the global economy. But the relevant question for a republic cannot simply be how large the economy has become. It must also ask: Who has benefited, who has been left behind and how equitably are opportunity and wealth distributed?Growth that produces extraordinary concentration of wealth cannot, by itself, be presented as the full story of national progress.Addressing the youth’s anxietiesThe second admission would concern jobs and livelihoods. For millions of young Indians, especially those emerging from universities and colleges, economic growth is meaningful only when it translates into dignified and secure work. A young person does not experience gross domestic product (GDP) growth as a statistic. She experiences it through an examination form, a recruitment notification, a cancelled examination, a temporary contract or the absence of an opportunity altogether. The anxiety of an entire generation deserves more than motivational speeches. It deserves policy.That brings us to education and examinations. The recurring failures of examination systems, paper leaks and uncertainty have imposed an extraordinary burden on young people who have done all that society asked of them: studied, prepared, waited and hoped. When an examination collapses, it is not only an administrative inconvenience. Months, and sometimes years, of a young person’s life are lost. A prime minister’s Independence Day speech ought to say plainly: We have failed some of our young citizens and we must do better.The broken promise of fraternityThen comes maybe the most important subject of all: social harmony. Fraternity is not a decorative word in the Preamble. It cannot be invoked ceremonially and ignored socially. The republic cannot be healthy if citizens begin to fear one another because of prejudices stemming from differences in religion, caste, language, food, clothing or region. India’s civilisational greatness has always rested on its ability to accommodate difference without converting diversity into hostility.I wish my prime minister could say: If any Indian feels that her citizenship is somehow conditional or that her dignity depends upon belonging to a particular community, then our work remains unfinished.That would not be weakness. It would be constitutional strength.Moving beyond electionsThe same honesty must extend to parliament. A true democracy is the continuous practice of listening, questioning, debating and disagreeing. Frequent disruption, shrinking debate and the diminishing space for parliamentary scrutiny weaken institutions that belong not to one government but to the republic itself. A government with a majority has a special responsibility here. Numbers can win a vote, but they cannot automatically produce legitimacy.Also read: An Independence Day Indulgence: ‘A Tryst With the People of India’The prime minister could also acknowledge the importance of federalism. India is not simply a large administrative unit governed from Delhi. It is a Union of states whose political diversity is one of its great strengths. Different states have different histories, aspirations, languages and political choices. A confident Union does not fear this diversity but trusts its states and respects their constitutional space.Farmers and workers must not be ignoredThere is another constituency whose contribution is too often celebrated rhetorically and protected inadequately: farmers and workers. The farmer produces food; the worker builds roads, houses, factories and cities; the informal worker sustains the everyday economy. Their labour cannot be invisible when we celebrate national prosperity. Economic growth must ultimately be measured by the security and dignity it creates for those who produce the country’s wealth.The same principle applies to minorities and marginalised communities. The real test of a republic is not how secure its majority feels, but whether those who possess less social, economic or political power feel equally protected by the constitution. The constitution does not promise dignity selectively.Importance of institutions and the language of politicsAn honest Independence Day speech would also speak about institutions. The independence and credibility of institutions are sometimes portrayed as obstacles to decisive governance. That is not the case. Institutions are precisely what prevent power from becoming arbitrary. Courts, universities, election bodies, investigative agencies, regulatory institutions, the media and parliament derive their strength from public trust. Their autonomy is not an inconvenience to democracy. It is one of its foundations.And perhaps the most difficult admission would concern the language of politics. Political disagreement is inevitable. Political competition is healthy, but political victory cannot become a licence for humiliation, hatred and personal demonisation. When the vocabulary of politics declines, the quality of public life declines along with it. The problem is not that leaders say harsh things about one another. What is more dangerous is the moment when citizens begin to believe that cruelty is a legitimate form of politics.India deserves betterImagine, then, an Independence Day speech in which the prime minister does not spend an entire hour or more telling Indians what the government has accomplished. Imagine them saying that governments are temporary but institutions are enduring; that political parties will come and go but the republic must remain; that electoral victory does not absolve power of the obligation to listen.Imagine him saying: We have made progress, but progress does not mean perfection. We have achieved much, but we have also fallen short. There are citizens whose lives remain harder than they should be. There are young people waiting for jobs. There are families struggling with insecurity. There are communities that do not always feel heard. There are institutions that require strengthening. There are social wounds that cannot be healed by slogans.Such words would perhaps be politically risky, however, statesmanship has never been the art of choosing only politically safe words. An Independence Day speech should not be a balance sheet of governmental achievements. It should be a mirror held before the nation. The mirror may reveal progress. It may also reveal scars.Also read: India Does Not Need Another Slogan. It Needs to Rediscover Its PolestarAfter all nations, like individuals, do not become stronger by refusing to look at their scars. They become stronger when they have the courage to name them, understand them and begin the difficult work of healing. Maybe, that is the Independence Day speech India needs. Not a speech that tells us that everything is well, but one that reminds us that the republic is still a work in progress. Maybe, the most patriotic sentence a prime minister could utter from the Red Fort this year could be the simplest: We have done much. We have also fallen short. And a nation becomes stronger not when it hides its failures, but when it has the courage to name them.Jai Hind.Manoj Kumar Jha is a Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) with Rashtriya Janata Dal.