Stale food stinks. Swinging between the two pet themes of “2014 se pahle (Before 2024)” and “2047 mein Viksit Bharat (Progressive Bharat in 2047)”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi failed to cook up anything new in his Independence Day speech, choosing to serve stale food instead.Like children singing nursery rhymes, the prime minister rattled away: Make-in-India, Aatmanirbhar Bharat, fragile-five, Start Up India, Nal se Jal (Water from taps), gas connection, house for the poor and, of course, toilets. You have heard it all a million times. Stale food.As is his wont, Modi hawked Viksit Bharat as the “big dream” because India can’t manage with “small dreams” anymore. It’s like an irreversible psychological occupation till 2047. It’s a political invasion of the gullible mind.It’s a cunning ploy to numb critical faculties. Wait and applaud. Don’t wake up to smell the stink of the stale food. Don’t cancel the contract. Promises will be repackaged; dreams will come wrapped in new shining papers.Saptdhara (Seven streams), the prime minister was kind enough to coin an enticing phrase. Liked it? Feel the phonetic effect. Flow with the semantic stream. So what Saptdhara is the same old pond, containing weeds of failed schemes.Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Red Fort in New Delhi on August 15, 2026. Photo: PTI/Salman Ali.The first of the seven elements sold as new is ‘manufacturing’ that the much-hyped Make in India envisioned way back in 2014. Cut the hype and what is left is disaster.The share of manufacturing before 2014 in GDP was between 15 to 17%. In 2026, it hasn’t moved an inch. Oblivious of this reality, Modi hoped India will become the centre of the global supply chain. India’s share in global merchandise exports is 1.8% despite 12 years of Make in India flimflam.The second element of Saptdhara is food processing. A government that sells ‘food processing’ as a new vision after 12 years in power is either intellectually bankrupt or a charlatan.The third is technology and innovation. Doesn’t this innocence of a government wallowing in the backwaters of ideas advertise stunning emptiness?The fourth is Gati-shakti (speed), heard countless times in the last decade.Also read: Swaraj is Freedom from Xenophobic NationalismThe fifth is defence production and drone manufacturing. Good we have woken up when China, Turkey, Israel, Iran, Poland, United States, Germany, England, Netherlands and even Hong Kong are leading the chart of global drone export.Those countries took the initiative when we were making Ram temple, showering flowers on Kanwariyas, managing Kumbh and lighting up a million diyas.The sixth is green economy. While millions of trees have been cut over the decade, the CAG report the Green India Mission missed its target by 97.57%.The seventh element is soft power. Soft power, which has been India’s strength since Jawaharlal Nehru’s days, becomes part of Modi’s new vision in 2026.Intellectual NaxalsThat Modi has run out of ideas and is relying on his outdated political template is manifested in multiple ways. When he got tired of parroting “Urban Naxal” attracting cheers only from his blind followers, he invented a cheaper concoction – “Dimagi (intellectual) Naxal”.He explained that these fellows don’t use weapons but are mentally like Naxalites. He was obviously referring to critics who questioned his dubious methods, political opponents who pressed for accountability and the Gen Z who revolted against his governance.Modi obviously wants cheerleaders and sycophants in every sphere of national life. Why can’t all politicians strengthen his hands, why can’t the civil society hail his initiatives, why can’t journalists defend his misdeeds, why can’t younger generation rejoice the dream of 2047? Dimagi Naxals, as he explained, are always looking for opportunities to create disturbances and trigger violence. So bad.Demonstrators during a protest march, near the parliament in New Delhi on July 20, 2026. Photo: PTI/Arun Sharma.The younger generation must not fall for the ideas propagated by “Dimagi Naxal” because Modi has declared that they will be the biggest beneficiary of Viksit Bharat.Wait till 2047 and let Modi shape their future. Modi narrated how he gave them “sasta (cheap) data, Skill India and Khelo India,” apart from over 600 new universities.The prime minister obviously has a problem with “intellect” as citizens who can think and critically analyse tend to become Dimagi Naxal.Be good boys and girls; obedient boys and girls. Let your brains sleep. Sing Modi hai to mumkin hai (Possible if Modi is there). What’s this Chhappan inch ka chhota bandar (small monkey with 56 inches)? Dimagi Naxals.But there is a problem. Without academic freedom, without independent thinking, technology and innovation are not possible. And those who will dedicate themselves to technology and innovation can’t be part of the ‘Civil Defence Force’ that Modi announced in his Independence Day speech.Is that a plan to institutionalise and legitimise the un-uniformed goons who assaulted students along with Delhi Police and paramilitary forces?Has the RSS project failed?As India celebrates 80th Independence Day and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)’s political wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) completes 12 years in office, the question that naturally comes to the mind is whether they succeeded in transforming India according to their philosophy and purpose.The emphasis on failure isn’t an outcome of perception bias; objective reality indicates they are nowhere near their target despite three consecutive terms in power. What should worry them is the spectre of collapse that the opposition parties have begun to foresee.The BJP’s numerical dominance in the political sphere is indisputable. But the power won by the BJP couldn’t bring the desired legitimacy for the RSS. The ideological space is still dominated by the Congress. What still commands legitimacy are the constitutional values of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity which the Congress and other secular parties espouse.Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty.Since the 2024 parliamentary election whittled down the BJP’s numerical strength, the Modi government miserably failed to earn social sanction for Hindu Rashtra. Forget about establishing their ideological dominance, they couldn’t even acquire political validity for their icons – V.D. Savarkar, M.S. Golwalkar and K.B. Hedgewar.While Modi has to contend with stealing Sardar Patel in the domestic arena, he bows before Mahatma Gandhi and digests praise for Jawaharlal Nehru on foreign tours. Aren’t 12 years long enough a period to declare before the world that India has changed and please accept Sangh Parivar icons now?The RSS-BJP ecosystem framed the political discourse in terms of Hindu-Muslim divide, never concealing their true intent of establishing a Hindu majoritarian state. Those who conceded Modi’s failure on every front asserted that he was needed to keep Muslims in check.Even that divisive narrative has succumbed to the larger Indian reality and the political battlefield now looks astonishingly unfamiliar after 12 years of total control. The traditional other – Muslims, stand sidelined, as a mute spectator because the fight is now with the majority of Hindus.Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav, Mamata Banerjee, Uddhav Thackeray, Tejashwi Yadav, Hemant Soren, all are devout Hindus standing up to BJP’s domineering ways. The Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) leadership, Gen Z and other disgruntled youth across the country are mostly Hindu.Students who committed suicide because of paper leak and students who revolted against the Modi regime were Hindu. Almost all the powerful journalists confronting the ruling establishment on YouTube are Hindu. Has the bonafide Hindu become the new ‘other’ for the RSS? Isn’t that a failure?What’s more alarming is the dent caused by the theft in Ram temple. That brings even the RSS religiosity under the cloud of suspicion. That acerbic slogan – Chanda chor kahan milega (Where will we find the donation thier)/ BJP ke daftar mein (in BJP’s office) – must have burnt their ears.They need healing. The crisis here is that there is no Muslim factor, giving them instant solutions. They should recognise this bitter truth. The RSS will have to confront genuine Hindus, not Muslims or Christians, in their plan to subvert secular democracy.Sanjay K. Jha is a political commentator.