Independence day speech: PM Narendra Modi calls on Indians to fight misogyny

On Monday morning, Primary Minister Narendra Modi addressed the citizens from the ramparts of the historic Red Fort on the occasion of India’s 75th birthday celebration.

Upon his arrival at the 17th Century monument, Mr Modi unfurled the particular national flag and was greeted with a 21-gun salute. As he took to the phase, helicopters flew past, showering flower padding on him.

In the speech watched simply by millions of Indians upon live TV, Mr Modi spoke on a plethora of issues, laying out a roadmap for the country’s development, calling for an finish to misogyny and weeding out corruption and nepotism.

Here are some of the highlights:

In his initial Independence-Day speech right after taking over as leading minister in 2014, Mr Modi experienced condemned rapes within India and questioned parents for placing restrictions on their children while letting their own sons do because they pleased.

On Monday too, this individual spoke about gender equality and emphasised the importance of treating sons and daughters because equal at home.

“Maybe this is not a topic for your Red Fort, yet who else may i share my discomfort with if not with all the people of my country? ” this individual said.

“For several reason, a distortion has crept straight into our conduct, our behaviour, our words and phrases so at times we insult women. Can we take a promise to stop this behavior? ” he asked.

Paying tributes to several ladies freedom fighters, Mister Modi said ladies role in India’s progress was ever growing.

Hailing women’s work in judiciary, governance, teachers, science and sports activities, the prime minister said that respect for women had been key to India’s growth and “we need to support our nari shakti” (woman power).

“For India to achieve the goals imagined by its freedom fighters in the next quarter of a century, women have to play a critical role. Whenever we uplift women and empower them, we can attain our goals easily and quickly.

“The more opportunities we give to our daughters, the more they are going to take India ahead, ” he stated.

Mr Modi’s focus on gender equality hits all the right records but critics mention that 75 yrs after independence, Indian remains a mainly patriarchal society exactly where misogyny is rampant.

Some took to social media to point out the misogynistic comments made by Mister Modi himself or his party people and said that to produce India a sex just society, we require much more than lips service.

The announcement that India will quickly have 5G cellular services will make numerous happy in a nation with a young human population and 1 . two billion mobile phone subscribers.

With more than 500 million internet users, India is one of the fastest-growing digital marketplaces with more and more individuals logging in. But the growth has been unequal, mostly restricted to towns and towns while millions in countryside areas have to tolerate patchy connectivity.

Indian recently sold spectrum for 5G airwaves for approximately $19bn and reports say that the much-awaited high-speed mobile services would be launched in a few weeks.

In his speech on Monday, Mister Modi said that electronic services would achieve every village which 400, 000 electronic entrepreneurs were getting trained in rural places.

“India’s techade [tech decade] is here. With 5G, semiconductor manufacturing and Optical Fibre Wires (OFCs) in towns, we will bring in cycles in education, health and agriculture to the grassroots level, ” this individual said.

“The Digital India Movement can lead to revolutionary changes in India and in the lives of the common man, ” he or she added. ‘

Within an apparent attack in the political opponents, Mr Modi said 2 of the biggest problems facing India had been “corruption and nepotism”.

“Corruption is hollowing out the country like a termite and we will have to fight it. We are going against individuals who have looted the country and are trying to get the loot back. We are entering a decisive phase and no high or mighty would be able to escape now. ”

Mr Modi mentioned “while some people failed to have homes, others did not have enough area to keep their ill-gotten wealth” and asked yourself why people felt sympathy for those politicians who had been jailed just for corruption.

“For this mentality to end, inch he said “people must hate corruption and the corrupt and appear down upon them socially. ”

Within the same breath, Mister Modi talked about nepotism, calling on “citizens associated with India to stand against dynasty and dynastic politics”.

Since its self-reliance in 1947, Indian has been ruled for a large part by Congress party which is led by the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. Many Indian states are also dominated by local politics families.

Mr Modi, who often talks proudly of his humble origins, in no way fails to take potshots at dynasties and Monday’s speech had been no different.

But at this juncture, Mr Modi proceeded to go a step ahead to express that when he talked about nepotism, it was not simply about politics.

“Dynasty kills advantage, but unfortunately dynasty is not just limited to national politics. We need to discourage this in institutions, in sports. We need to begin a revolution against this. ”

Mr Modi credited India’s current success in sporting events such as the Commonwealth Video games in Birmingham and the Tokyo Olympics plus Paralympics to the transparency in the selection procedure for athletes.

“It’s not really that we didn’t possess talent earlier, yet transparent selection bereft of nepotism provides led to Indians successful medals, ” he said.

Some, however , have pointed out that Mister Modi’s government has been spending more money on athletes, but India’s medal haul has been better in the past — in Birmingham, India won 61 honor while in 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India’s tally has been 101.