PM Modi’s Longest Independence Day Address Yet: Check Out How Long The Speech Lasted
Friday’s address was also PM Modi’s 12th consecutive Independence Day speech, a feat that put him ahead of Indira Gandhi’s record.
PM Modi Independence Day Address: Prime Minister Narendra Modi marked the 78th Independence Day with his longest-ever speech from the Red Fort, clocking in at a marathon 105 minutes on Friday. Starting at 7:32 am and wrapping up at 9:17 am, the address surpassed his previous personal best of 98 minutes in 2023, further solidifying his reputation for delivering some of the lengthiest speeches in Independence Day history.
Longest Address of His Tenure
This year’s speech has set a fresh milestone for PM Modi, who has consistently been known for extended and detail-heavy Independence Day addresses. Before this, his longest had been last year’s 98-minute address, which itself had beaten earlier records of 96 minutes in 2016 and 92 minutes in 2019. The shortest speech of his tenure came in 2017, at just 56 minutes.
Previously, Jawaharlal Nehru’s 72-minute speech in 1947 was considered the longest in Red Fort history. PM Modi overtook that in 2015 with an 88-minute address and has since expanded the benchmark multiple times.
Breaking Consecutive Speech Records
Friday’s address was also PM Modi’s 12th consecutive Independence Day speech, a feat that put him ahead of Indira Gandhi’s record of 11 uninterrupted addresses. Indira, who served from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 to 1984, delivered 16 Independence Day speeches in total, though only 11 were back-to-back.
The only leader with a longer consecutive run remains Nehru, who addressed the nation 17 times in a row between 1947 and 1963. Manmohan Singh, in office from 2004 to 2014, had matched Indira’s consecutive tally before PM Modi surpassed it in 2023.
Praises For The Armed Forces
Prime Minister Narendra Modi used his Independence Day address from the Red Fort to laud the Indian Armed Forces for the planning and execution of Operation Sindoor, a large-scale anti-terror offensive carried out earlier this year. Emphasising that the military had been granted complete operational independence, Modi reiterated that India makes no distinction between terrorists and the governments that harbour or support them.
“After April 22, we gave full freedom to our armed forces to strike at the heart of terror. They struck several kilometres inside terrorist territory. An anti-terror operation of such scale was due for several decades,” the Prime Minister said, referring to the April 22 Pahalgam attack that claimed 26 lives, including those of tourists.
Sending a strong message to those issuing nuclear threats, Modi declared, “Nuclear blackmail has been continuing for a long time, but it will no longer be tolerated. If our enemies persist in such attempts, our armed forces will respond.” He added that India’s defence forces would operate “on their own terms, at a time of their choosing, and by achieving the objectives they set” to deliver a “befitting reply” to any provocation.
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