Search the PM’s speeches next for occasions where “vulgar” has been used in the context of “wealth”; he said at the CII speech that the “media often displays...vulgar display of wealth (by the rich).” Try a variety of combinations, read through the speeches, the PM has never used the qualifier “vulgar” for “wealth” in the 528 speeches he gave before Thursday.

What about “ostentatious expenditure,” which the PM said in his CII speech is a “great area of concern”? A search for “ostentatious” and “expenditure” returns 37 hits. But in 36 of them only “expenditure” appears, in unremarkable contexts like planning commission dos and don’ts. “Ostentatious” is paired with “expenditure” only once — in the Thursday speech. So again, never before his 529th speech did the PM find reason to question individual decisions on how to spend disposable income.

“Our polity may become anarchic,” the PM said on Thursday, arguing wealth disparities can cause serious social tension. Singh did tell the Harvard Alumni on March 25, 2006 there was something “anarchic” about this country. But that was a reference to education; “anarchic growth in quantitative terms and moribund stagnation in qualitative terms.” Anarchy as consequence of economic growth — you heard it first from the PM on Thursday.

What was he saying before the CII speech? Very different things. Let’s, to be fair, take prime ministerial addresses in contexts similar to that of the CII meeting this week. That is, speeches given to audiences comprising the wealthy and the socially well-connected, prime candidates for indulging in “conspicuous consumption.”

... contd.