PM’s Independence Day Speech – Highlights

The Prime Minster, Shri Narendra Modi today addressed the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort on the 72nd Independence Day. Following are the highlights from his speech: Today, the country is full of self-confidence. The country is scaling new heights by working extremely hard with a resolve to scale new heights. We have been celebrating this festival of independence, at a time when our daughters from states of Uttarakhand, Himachal, Manipur, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have come back after circumnavigating the seven seas. They have come back amongst us by (unfurling tricolour in seven seas) turning the seven seas into the colour of our Tricolor. Our young tribal children, those who live in our forests in the far-flung areas, they have enhanced the glory of the tri-colour by unfurling it on the Mount Everest. Whether it is a Dalit or be it someone who has been persecuted or exploited or be it a deprived person or women, our Parliament has made the social justice even morestronger with all the sensitivity and alertness to protect their interests. The demand to give constitutional status to the OBC commission had been raised for years. This time our Parliament has made an effort to protect the interests of backward classes, interests of the extremely backward classes by according the constitutional status to the OBC commission. I want to reassure the people who have lost their loved ones and are facing a lot of distress due to floods that the country is with them and is making complete efforts for helping them out. My heartfelt condolences are with those who have lost their loved ones. The next year will mark 100 years of the Jalliwanwallahbagh massacre. The masses had sacrificed their lives for the country’s freedom; and the exploitation had crossed all limits. The Jalliwanwallahbagh incident inspires us of the sacrifices made by those brave hearts. I salute all those brave hearts from the bottom of my heart. India has become the sixth largest economy of the world. Today I salute those brave freedom fighters from the core of my heart on behalf of my countrymen. Our soldiers, the para-military forces and the Police are laying down their lives and are in service of the people of the country day in and day out for maintaining the splendour and dignity of the National flag, the tricolour. After independence, an highly inclusive constitution was drafted under the leadership of Baba SahebAmbedkar. It came with the resolve of making a new India. India should be self-reliant, strong, always on the path of sustainable development. There should not only be a credence for India, but we also want that India should be effective in the world, we make India like that. When dreams, hard work and aspirations of 125 crores people come together, what can’t be achieved? 125 crores Indian did not just stop at forming the government in 2014, instead, they continuously strived to make the country better. This is the strength of India. If you take into consideration the work that has been done in the last four years, you will be surprised to see the speed at which the country is moving and the pace at which the progress is being made. Had we worked at the speed of 2013 , it would have taken centuries in making India 100% open defecation free or electrifying every part or even providing the LPG gas connection to every woman in rural and urban areas. Had we worked with the speed of 2013, an entire generation would have taken to connect the country with optical fibre. We will go by such speed to achieve all these goals. The country is experiencing change in the last four years. The country is progressing with new zeal, enthusiasm and courage. Today the country is constructing twice the highways and four times more houses in the villages. The country is producing record foodgrains and manufacturing record number of mobile phones. The sale of tractors has reached a new high. After independence the country is buying largest numbers of airplanes. The new IIMs, IITs and AIIMS are being established in the country. The mission of Skill Development is being encouraged by establishing new centres in small places. Start-up programmes have mushroomed in Tier II and Tier III cities. Efforts are in progress to compile a ‘common sign’ dictionary for disable persons. Modernisation and technology has entered into the field of agriculture. Our farmers are using micro irrigation, drip irrigation and sprinkler irrigation methods. On the one hand, our soldiers help those who are at the brink of catastrophe with sympathy and empathy and on the other hand they are capable of attacking the enemies with surgical strikes. We should always progress with new objectives. When our goals are not clear, progress is not possible. We will not be in a position to solve the various problems for years together. We have decided with great courage to give attractive prices for the products of farmers. The minimum support price for many crops has been increased to more than 1.5 times the input costs. With the help of small traders, their openness and their aptitude to accept new things, the country has successfully implemented the GST. It has brought a new confidence among the traders. Benami Property Law has been implemented with great courage and intention for the good of the country. There was a time when the world used to call India’s economy risky. However, today, the same people and institutions have been saying with a lot of confidence that our reform momentum has been strengthening our fundamentals. There was a time when the world used to talk of Red Tape’. However, today the issue of ‘Red Carpet’ is being discussed. We have reached 100th position in the ‘ease of doing business’ ranking. Today, the entire world is looking at our achievement with pride. There was a time when for the world India meant – ‘policy paralysis’ and ‘delayed reforms’. However, today India is being discussed for – ‘reform, perform and transform’. There was a time when the world counted India among the ‘fragile five’. However, today the world has been saying that India has become the destination for multi-trillion dollar investment. It is being said about India’s economy that the ‘sleeping elephant’ has woken up and has started racing. The world economists and institutions have observed that for the next three decades India would contribute momentum to the global economic strength. India’s stature has increased at the international forums, India has voiced its opinions strongly on such forums. Earlier India was awaiting membership of various international organisations. Now innumerable institutions have come forward to give membership to India. India has become a hope for all the other countries as far as global warming is concerned. International solar alliance is being welcomed throughout the world. Today we see a magnificent impression of North East in the field of sports. The last village in the North East has been electrified. We are getting progressive news about highways, railways, airways, waterways and information ways (I-ways) from North East. Our youths from the North East are establishing BPO in their areas. The North East region has turned to be a hub of organic farming. Sports university is being set up in North East. There was a time when North East felt distant from Delhi but within last four years we have succeeded to get Delhi to the threshold of North East. In our country 65% of our population consists of 35 year old people. Our youth has brought a paradigm shift in the nature of job. Whether it is startup, BPO or e-commerce or the field of mobility, our youth has entered into new fields. Now a days our youth is committed to take this country to new heights. 13 crore people have availed MUDRA LOAN which is a great achievement. Of this 4 crore are youth who have availed loan for the very first time and are self-employed and progressing independently. This in itself is an example of changing atmosphere.Our youth are managing common service centres in three lakh villages and they are linking every village and citizen with the world in seconds by utilizing information technology. With the spirit of innovation our scientists, we are going to launch ‘NAVIC’ which will be very useful for the fishermen and others. India has resolved to send manned spacecraft to the space by 2022. India will be the fourth country to do this. Now we are focussed on bringing modernisation and advancement in the field of agriculture. We have dreamt of doubling farmer’s income by 75th year of Independence. We want to expand the horizons of agriculture with the help of modernization. We want to adopt value addition right from ‘seeds – to –market’. For the first time we are progressing in the path of Agriculture Export Policy so as to enable our farmers to emerge powerful in the world market. Now new avenues of organic farming, blue revolution, sweet revolution, solar farming have emerged on which we plan to move ahead. In fisheries, India has emerged second largest country of the world. The export of honey has doubled. It is a matter of pleasure for the sugarcane farmers that the production of ethanol has tripled. In rural economy, the other sectors are also important. We want to increase the resources of rural area, with the creation of women self-help groups, mobilizing billions of rupees. We want to enhance the efficiency of villages and we are making efforts in this direction. Now the sale of Khadi has doubled. Our farmers are now focussing on solar farming. Due to this he can contribute to agriculture and at the same time earn money by sale of solar energy. Along with economic progress and development, we also want to focus on dignity of human life which is supreme. Hence we are also planning to continue with those schemes which enable a common man to lead his life with pride, respect and dignity. According to WHO report 3 lakh children have been saved because of Swachchta Campaign. Taking inspiration from Gandhiji who had organized satayagrahis, we have succeed to mobilize ‘Swatchagrahis’. On the occasion of 150th birth anniversary crores of “Swatchagrahis’ plan to pay tribute in deed and action to respected Bapuji in the form of Swatch Bharat. In order to provide free health services to the poorest people, Government of India has launched Pradhan Mantri Jan ArogyaYojanaAbhiyan. Now under this scheme any person can get relief from diseases by going to the good hospitals. Under the scheme Ayushman Bharat 10 crore families are able to get health insurance benefits, it means nearly 50 crore citizens will be covered. Each family will get 5 lakh rupees health coverage annually. We give utmost importance to technology and transparency. Technology intervention will remove the hurdles for the common man in accessing various facilities. With this objective technology tools have been developed. Pradhan Mantri Jan ArogyaAbhiyan will be launched on 25th September, 2018 as a result from now on, common man need not suffer from problems of dreaded diseases. New avenues are emerging for middle class families and youth in the field of health. New hospitals will be constructed in 2 tier and 3 tier cities. Medical staff will be established in huge numbers. Employment opportunities will be more in the years to come. During the period of four years we tried to empower the poor. One international organisation has reported that during the last two years, 5 crore poor people have crossed the poverty line. There are several schemes for empowerment of poor. But the middlemen are taking away the benefits and poorer people are unable to get the benefits. Government is making efforts to close all the leakages. We are on the path of removal of corruption and black-money. Due to all these efforts we were able to mobilize 90000 crore money to the Government Exchequer. The honest pay taxes. With their contribution schemes are implemented. The credit goes to taxpayer and not to the Government. Upto 2013, for the past 70 years the direct tax payers were only 4 crore people. Now the numbers has doubled and grown to 7.25 crores. For the period of 70 years, indirect tax officials were able to mobilize 70 lakhs of revenue. Whereas by implementation of GST, within a year we were able to mobilize 16 lakhs of revenue. We cannot tolerate black money and corruption. Let there be many obstacles. But I can’t leave them. Now power brokers are not visible in the streets of Delhi. In order to maintain transparency we have launched online process. We have utilized Information Technology to the maximum level. Through Short Service Commission, we will appoint women officers in the Armed Forces of India. Transparency will be maintained in this process. Women officials will be treated at par with male counterparts. Rape is painful. But the agony experienced by the victim is more painful. This should be realized by the people of this country. Everybody should feel the trauma. We have to liberate this country, and society from the clutches of this demonic attitude. Law is doing it’s own business. We have to make efforts to attack this attitude. We have to attack this type of thinking. We should remove these types of perversion. Triple Talak has endangered the lives of Muslim women. Those who did not get Talak (divorce) are also sailing in the same boat. We made an effort to alleviate the grief of Muslim women by bringing an act in the Monsoon Session of Parliament. But even today there are some people who do not want to pass the Bill. Due to the efforts of security forces and endeavours made by State Governments, and also due to the implementation of Central and State Government developmental schemes and the people’s participation, Tripura and Meghalaya have been liberated from the Armed Forces Special Power Act. The way shown to us by Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the matters of Jammu and Kashmir is the best way. We would like to go in the same path. We do not want the path of bullets and abuses. We have to embrace the patriotic people of Kashmir, and proceed further. In the months to come, rural people of Jammu and Kashmir will be able to enjoy their rights. They will be able to take care of themselves. Government of India gives enough money to Gram Panchayaths which will be useful for development. We have to arrange for the elections to panchayats and local institutions. We are progressing in this direction. Every Indian dreams to have his own house, therefore we bring in “Housing for All.”. He wants to get his house electrified, therefore there is Electrification for all Villages. Every Indian wants to get rid of smoke in the kitchen. To achieve this there is cooking gas for all. Every Indian requires safe drinking water. Therefore our aim is to get water for all. Every Indian requires a toilet, hence our objective is to ensure sanitation for all. Every Indian requires skill development. Hence we have brought in skill development for all. Every Indian needs quality health service. So, our endeavour is health for all. Every Indian requires security for which he needs a health insurance coverage. To meet this need, we bring insurance for all. Every Indian requires internet facility. Therefore we are making efforts to get connectivity for all. We want to lead our country towards the path of development by following the mantra of connectivity. We don’t want the path of confrontation. We do not want roadblocks. We don’t want to bow our head before anybody. The nation will never stop, never bow before anything,never get tired. We have to scale new heights. It is our aim to achieve enormous progress in the years to come.