New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will deliver his 12th consecutive Independence Day address to the nation on Friday, a milestone that comes months after Operation Sindoor and amid opposition parties uniting over alleged poll irregularities to question his government.
If Modi is expected to underline India’s uncompromising stand on national security, economic growth and expanding welfare model on his watch, he may also address the mood of economic and foreign relations uncertainty triggered by US President Donald Trump’s adversarial stand against India on trade.
He has repeatedly emphasised on making the country “aatmanirbhar” by boosting indigenous know-how and local manufacturing to help make “Viksit Bharat” by 2047, and his speech on the country’s 79th Independence Day may echo this.
After recently going past Indira Gandhi’s record of tenure for a consecutive period as prime minister, Modi, with his 12th Independence Day address, will edge ahead of her 11 consecutive speeches from the ramparts of Red Fort to stand only next to Jawaharlal Nehru in terms of number of the Red Fort addresses in a row.
Indira Gandhi held the office between January 1966 and March 1977, and then between January 1980 till her assassination in October 1984. In total, she has delivered 16 addresses as prime minister on August 15.
Modi’s speeches on August 15 invariably touch on key issues of the day and the country’s growth on his watch, and he often intersperses this with announcements of policy initiatives or new schemes.
In his 98-minute address on August 15 in 2024, he had made an unequivocal pitch for a “secular” civil code instead of the current framework which is “communal” and promoted “discrimination”, and also for simultaneous polls.
He had announced that 75,000 more medical seats will be created in the country in the next five years.
Social ills like crimes against women have also figured prominently in some of his speeches, and so are his push for cleanliness and empowerment of women and traditionally disadvantaged communities.
Political watchers will eagerly look out for any signalling from him on the foreign policy front at a time when India’s generally solid ties with the US are under strain amid Trump’s repeated claims of mediating cease fire between India and Pakistan and use of tariff to pressure India on trade.
Trump’s decision to single out India for high tariff of 50 per cent, his occasional praise of Pakistan and ceasefire claims have given the opposition fodder to attack the Modi government.
With Parliament’s Monsoon session continuing and marred by disruption from the Opposition, which has alleged poll irregularities and demanded a discussion on the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar, it will be seen with interest whether the prime minister responds to the allegations.
His government’s muscular stand against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism and naxalism has been a regular highlight in Modi’s annual speeches, and this year is unlikely to be any different.
The prime minister had sought suggestions from citizens for his address, and it will be keenly watched if some of these ideas make it to his speech.
