Modi's toilet talk is nothing short of revolutionary
Amrit Dhillon lauds Modi's refreshing approach to skip the lofty talk and focus on what will improve Indian lives - a cleaner living environment
Not even 100 days into the job, India's new prime minister, Narendra Modi, is proving to be an original. For the first time in decades, a prime minister is telling Indians a home truth: India is dirty because many Indians have dirty habits.
It must be said if anything is to change.
India's villages are pretty grubby but they are nothing compared with its urban filth. A friend calls small towns, particularly those in north India, "toilet towns". While most Indians are scrupulously clean about their person, they think public spaces - even the few feet around them - are not their responsibility, so they litter, spit and urinate with abandon.
A recent visit to Varanasi, the Hindu holy city, jangled the old sensibilities. The squalor is so unremitting that I am prepared to stick my neck out and make a prediction: if the plague ever breaks out again in India (the last time was in 1994), it will be here.
Modi must have glimpsed this dirtiness everywhere during his visit to Varanasi, where he stood for election earlier this year. After becoming prime minister, he returned to the city to thank its citizens for their support.
Instead of pandering to their pride by praising the city's so-called reputation for spirituality, he said the city needed to be cleaned up, along with the Ganges. In fact, Modi keeps talking about cleanliness. The last person who used to talk so much about this was Mahatma Gandhi. Since then, prime ministers have avoided references to dirt and lavatories, preferring to dwell on loftier themes.