PM Modi to deliver 12th consecutive I-Day address; Operation Sindoor, trade in focus
(You can now subscribe to our
(You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel
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.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
38 minutes ago
- Time of India
Sindoor befitting response to India's adversaries: President Droupadi Murmu
NEW DELHI: President Droupadi Murmu Thursday said will go down in history as an example of "humanity's fight against " and stressed that the unity of Indians was the most befitting response to those seeking to divide the country. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now "In our response, what was most noticeable was our unity, which was also the most befitting reply to those who wanted to divide us," the President said, referring to the segregation of tourists by faith by terrorists who killed them at Pahalgam. In her Independence Day-eve address, Murmu called the killings "cowardly and utterly inhuman" and said India responded "decisively and with steely resolve". She praised the armed forces for "strategic clarity and technical capability" in destroying terror hubs across the border. "The world has taken note that we will not be the aggressor, but we will not hesitate to retaliate in defence of our citizens," said Murmu. She noted multi-party delegations of MPs had reached out to other nations to explain India's position. Calling Operation Sindoor a "test case" for in defence, she said it proved India is on right path. Indigenous manufacturing, she added, now meets many security needs - a "landmark achievement" since Independence. PM Modi, responding to her speech, said Rashtrapati ji had "highlighted the collective progress of our nation and the opportunities ahead" and reminded citizens of the sacrifices that paved the way for freedom. In her fourth I-Day address, Murmu urged remembrance of Partition's pain, and paid tribute to its victims. She hailed the new rail link to Kashmir as a historic milestone and praised India's expanding space programme, saying Shubhanshu Shukla's ISS mission will inspire the upcoming Gaganyaan human spaceflight.
Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
Named after Operation Sindoor, Janmashtami Lok Mela inaugurated in Rajkot
The Janmashtami Lok Mela, the largest such fair in Gujarat, was inaugurated at the Race Course ground in Rajkot on Thursday. Named Shaurya nu Sindoor, an obvious reference to Operation Sindoor carried out during the recent conflict with Pakistan, the name was selected from over 3,000 entries received from the people, said Collector Om Prakash Machhra. The mela was inaugurated by Agriculture Minister Raghavji Patel and Social Justice Minister Bhanuben Babariya. The mela is spread over a 70,000 square metres area of which 23,000 square metres have rides and stalls while the rest is open space. Collector Om Prakash said, 'We have marked public assembly zones in cases of disaster, watchtowers have been set up for constant lookout, and disaster response teams have been created. A disaster response plan is in place to make sure the mela is safe.' He further said, 'Two disaster (preparedness) workshops were also conducted and there is an effort to bring confidence in the public that the system is working for them.'
Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
2 members of new insurgent outfit arrested with explosives in North Tripura: police
The Tripura Police said on Thursday that they arrested two insurgents of the Tripura United National Front (TUNF), a new outfit believed to be operating from hideouts in Assam, and seized explosive materials from them, barely hours before Independence Day. Speaking to a police officer said the TUNF's main aim was to kill police and other security personnel deployed on Independence Day and loot their arms and ammunition. 'On the eve of the Independence Day celebrations, we received specific inputs about a sabotage attempt by a miscreant group having links with a group namely Tripura United National Front (TUNF). The group is still in the formation stage. It has also been planning subversive acts in the Kanchanpur subdivision to get maximum attention on the eve of this Independence Day,' the officer said. He Said the state police's intelligence wing had been closely monitoring inputs from the ground for the past 48 hours in coordination with the North Tripura district police to track the insurgents' movements. The officer said the police laid an ambush on Kanchanpur-Vangmun Road in North Tripura and, around 5.40 pm, caught Sadai Nanda Reang, who hails from Damcherra in the same district, and Dhananjoy Reang of Assam's Hailakandi district. 'High-end explosive materials were recovered from them,' added the officer, who didn't wish to be named. While insurgency has been at an all time low in Tripura, courtesy of en masse surrenders and peace deals signed with the Central Government in the past few years, the new outfit has been trying to gain traction, according to the police. On September 24 last year, three weeks after the Government of India signed a quadripartite memorandum of settlement with the Tripura Government and the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), and the All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF), over 580 cadres of both outlawed insurgent groups surrendered at the headquarters of the Tripura State Rifles' seventh battalion at Jampuijala, 40 km from Agartala, ending their five-decade-long insurgency. Chief Minister Manik Saha then announced that Tripura had turned into an insurgency-free state. Insurgency largely came down during the Left Front Government's rule, when lucrative offers of an instant grant of Rs 1.5 lakh, vocational training, and a Rs 2,000 stipend prompted insurgents to give up arms. Although armed insurgency in Tripura dates back to 1967, when a small outfit called Sengkrak took up arms, the thick of insurgency came in the late '80s, when groups such as the NLFT and the ATTF rose. While most of these have largely been defunct, a small NLFT faction is said to be active in Bangladesh.
