Independence Day: At 90 minutes, PM Modi’s speech among his longest; Nehru, Indira delivered shortest ones

Only four PMs have given 10 speeches or more

Today, Modi has matched Singh’s tally and trails only Nehru and Indira Gandhi. While Nehru delivered 17 consecutive speeches, Indira’s were split by Morarji Desai’s two years in office and Charan Singh’s one year in the post.

Four PMs were in office long enough to deliver just one speech — I K Gujral, H D Deve Gowda, V P Singh, and Charan Singh.

Chandra Shekhar is the only prime minister who did not get the opportunity to give an Independence Day speech. His tenure lasted from November 10, 1990 to June 21, 1991. Shekhar was PM for only eight months before his minority government collapsed.

Number of Independence Day speeches by PMs

Number of speeches on Independence Day by Prime Ministers over the years

The long and the short of it

On average, at 83 minutes, Modi’s speeches are by far the longest among the nine PMs who delivered more than one address. Desai and Atal Bihari Vajpayee had the shortest average durations at 27 and 28 minutes, respectively.

Among the top-10 longest speeches before 2023, eight have been delivered by Modi. The longest speech to date is his 94-minute address in 2016, with most of his speeches clocking in at more than 80 minutes. After Modi, Nehru in 1947 and Gujral in 1997 had the longest speeches at 72 and 71 minutes, respectively.

Nehru and Indira also gave the shortest speeches on record at 14 minutes in 1954 and 1966, respectively. Among the 10 shortest speeches, five were by Nehru, two each by Indira and Vajpayee, and one by Charan Singh.

In total, all the prime ministers have spoken for a cumulative 3,104 minutes at an average of 41 minutes per speech.

Average duration of speech (minutes)

Average duration of speeches by Prime Ministers on Independence Day over the years.

*Only one speech delivered

Source: PIB Archives

Note: Data for Nehru’s 1960 speech not available