Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his speech on the occasion of India’s 70th Independence Day said, “Today on this special day, I convey my greetings to the 125 crore Indians & the Indian community living overseas.” “This is a Sankalp Parv. Our freedom is because of the great people who sacrificed their lives for the freedom – be it Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru. These people and many others struggled a slot for our independence,” PM Modi said. Urging people to work towards the dream of ‘Ek Bharat, Shreshth Bharat’, the Prime Minister said, “Patel united the nation, now Ek Bharat Shresth Bharat should be our attempt. We have to fulfill this dream.” “We have to transforn Swarajya to Surajya. And just like Swarajya did not come without sacrifices, Surajya will also require a lot of struggle and sacrifices,” he added.
LIVE Independence Day 2016: PM Narendra Modi’s speech at the Red Fort
“Surajya means bringing about a change in the lives of the common man of the country. It means a qualitative and positive change in the lives of the citizen of India,” Modi said. Acknowledging that the country faces problems, PM Modi said, “Yes, we face several problems. But we are capable of overcoming them. If India has many problems, then it also has 125 crore Indians, who are capable of dealing with them,” he said adding that it would be easy for him to highlight the various schemes that his government has launched in the last two years. “Today, more than Karya, I want to talk about Karya Sanskriti on the government,” he said. Earlier PM Modi had tweeted, “Happy Independence Day! Jai Hind!”. He paid homage to Mahatma Gandhi at the Rajghat before going to Red Fort for the ceremony.