Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered a 75-minute Independence Day address from the Red Fort on Saturday, making it his shortest speech on the occasion in four years and the fourth shortest of his tenure.
Last year, on India’s 79th Independence Day, Modi spoke for 103 minutes, exceeding his previous record of 98 minutes set in 2024, reports Telegraph India.
Before that, his longest Independence Day address was a 96-minute speech in 2016.
His shortest came in 2017, when he spoke for 56 minutes.
Saturday’s address was Modi’s 13th consecutive Independence Day speech from the Red Fort. In 2025, he surpassed former prime minister Indira Gandhi’s record of 12 consecutive Independence Day addresses, leaving only Jawaharlal Nehru ahead of him with 17 such speeches in succession.
Modi delivered his first Independence Day address from the Red Fort in 2014, when he spoke for 65 minutes.
His 2015 speech lasted 88 minutes, followed by 83 minutes in 2018 and nearly 92 minutes in 2019.
His 2020 address lasted 90 minutes, while he spoke for 88 minutes in 2021, 74 minutes in 2022 and 90 minutes in 2023.
Before Modi, Nehru and I K Gujral delivered the longest Independence Day speeches by prime ministers, lasting 72 minutes in 1947 and 71 minutes in 1997, respectively.
Nehru and Indira Gandhi also hold the record for the shortest Independence Day addresses, with both speaking for 14 minutes — Nehru in 1954 and Gandhi in 1966.
Former prime ministers Manmohan Singh and Atal Bihari Vajpayee also delivered some of the shortest Independence Day speeches from the Red Fort.
Singh spoke for 32 minutes in 2012 and 35 minutes in 2013, while Vajpayee’s addresses in 2002 and 2003 lasted 25 and 30 minutes, respectively.
