79th Independence day
PM Modi delivers 103-minute Independence Day speech, longest ever by any Prime Minister
Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke his own 98-minute record from the 78th Independence Day last year
PTI
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seen during the 79th Independence Day celebrations in New Delhi on August 15, 2025. | Sushil Kumar Verma is the photographer. The longest Independence Day speech ever given by a prime minister in India was delivered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 15, 2025, from the Red Fort's ramparts.
Mr. Modi broke his own 98-minute record from the 78th Independence Day last year.
His 2016 Independence Day speech lasted 96 minutes, the longest before 2024, while his 2017 speech was 56 minutes long. On India's 79th Independence Day, Mr. Modi also broke the record set by Indira Gandhi by giving 12 speeches in a row from Red Fort. This puts him in second place only to Jawaharlal Nehru, who gave 17 speeches in a row on Independence Day. Mr. Modi delivered his first Independence Day speech in 2014, which lasted 65 minutes.
Independence Day
In 2015, his speech lasted 88 minutes. In 2018, Mr. It took Modi 83 minutes to deliver his address from the Red Fort's ramparts. In 2019, he then spoke for nearly 92 minutes. In 2020 Mr. The 90-minute I-day address by Modi lasted. In 2021, his Independence Day speech lasted 88 minutes, while in 2022, it lasted 74 minutes. In 2023, Mr. The 90-minute speech by Modi lasted. Before Mr. The longest speeches were given by Modi, Jawaharlal Nehru in 1947, and IK Gujral in 1997, which lasted 72 and 71 minutes, respectively. Nehru and Indira Gandhi also gave the shortest speeches on record at 14 minutes in 1954 and 1966, respectively.
Former Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and Atal Bihari Vajpayee also gave some of the shortest Independence Day speeches from the Red Fort.
Manmohan Singh's speeches in 2012 and 2013 lasted only 32 and 35 minutes, respectively. In 2002 and 2003, Atal Bihari Vajpayee's speeches were even shorter—25 minutes and 30 minutes, respectively.
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