New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered a historic 103-minute Independence Day address from the Red Fort on Friday, marking the longest speech by any Indian prime minister. He surpassed his own 98-minute record set on the 78th Independence Day last year.
Before 2024, Modi’s longest Independence Day speech was 96 minutes in 2016, while his shortest was 56 minutes in 2017. On India’s 79th Independence Day, he also broke Indira Gandhi’s record by delivering 12 consecutive Red Fort addresses, becoming second only to Jawaharlal Nehru, who spoke 17 times in a row.
Since his first Independence Day speech in 2014, which lasted 65 minutes, Modi’s speeches have varied in length: 88 minutes in 2015, 83 minutes in 2018, nearly 92 minutes in 2019, 90 minutes in 2020, 88 minutes in 2021, 74 minutes in 2022, and 90 minutes in 2023.
For context, prior to Modi, Jawaharlal Nehru (1947) and I.K. Gujral (1997) held the record for the longest speeches at 72 and 71 minutes, respectively. Nehru and Indira Gandhi also delivered the shortest recorded speeches, at 14 minutes in 1954 and 1966. Former prime ministers Manmohan Singh and Atal Bihari Vajpayee also delivered relatively brief addresses, with Singh speaking for 32 and 35 minutes in 2012 and 2013, and Vajpayee for 25 and 30 minutes in 2002 and 2003.
