Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 15 delivered his longest Independence Day speech at 98 minutes from the ramparts of the historic Red Fort.
This was the second record that he set with his 11th consecutive address. The other one is surpassing his predecessor Manmohan Singh’s 10 Independence Day addresses to become the third PM to achieve the feat.
PM Modi’s Independence Day speeches average 82 minutes, which is longer than any other prime minister in the country.His longest I-day speech was 96 minutes in 2016 and his shortest one was in 2017 when he spoke for around 56 minutes.
The speech on Thursday was his 11th address as the PM and his first after taking charge for a third term. Before PM Modi, India’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru and later I.K. Gujral had delivered the longest speeches. Nehru in 1947 and Gujral in 1997 spoke for 72 and 71 minutes, respectively.
The shortest speech record goes to Nehru and Indira Gandhi. Both spoke for 14 minutes in 1954 and 1966, respectively. Manmohan Singh, who headed the UPA government for straight two tenures, delivered speeches in 2012 and 2013 which lasted only 32 and 35 minutes, respectively.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was the PM during the NDA rule, also gave short speeches — 2002 and 2003 — at 25 and 30 minutes, respectively.
Besides the speech duration record, with his 11th consecutive address on Independence Day from the ramparts of the Red Fort, PM Modi becomes the third Prime Minister to do so. The record lies with Nehru who hoisted the flag 17 times from 1947 to 1964. Nehru is followed by Indira Gandhi who hoisted the national flag 16 times. Indira Gandhi, however, did not achieve this record in consecutive tenures. She did this in two different stints from 1966-1977 and 1980-1984.
