PM Modi Delivers Longest-Ever Independence Day Speech of 103 Minutes from Red Fort

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Friday, August 15, delivered his longest Independence Day address to date, speaking for 103 minutes (1 hour 43 minutes) from the ramparts of the Red Fort. This surpassed his previous record of 98 minutes set last year and marks a new milestone in his series of speeches since taking office in 2014.

Modi’s speech lengths over the years have varied -65 minutes in 2014, 88 minutes in 2015, 83 in 2018, nearly 92 in 2019, 90 in 2020, 88 in 2021, 74 in 2022, and 90 minutes in 2023. His first personal record was in 2015 with an 88-minute speech.

Before Modi, the longest Independence Day speeches were delivered by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1947 and I.K. Gujral in 1997, at 72 and 71 minutes, respectively. Notably, Nehru and Indira Gandhi also hold the record for the shortest addresses, speaking for just 14 minutes in 1954 and 1966.