Independence Day: Modi's First Speech From Red Fort

NEW DELHI: Independence Day is approaching and everyone’s eyes are on the new Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It seems that he could use the occasion to lay down his plans and for that he may use Red Fort as the venue reports Times of India.

 Yes, there are some watchers who suspect that by choosing the Red Fort as the venue for Independence Day he might break the rules but this not a new thing for Modi. Being Gujarat chief minister, he had prominently shifted the I-Day venue from Gandhinagar to obscure towns even when the opposition blamed him for indulging in publicity stunts.

In 2003, he spread out the tricolour from Patan, capital of old Gujarat, and followed it up with a succession of I-Day venues from small towns namely Anand, Himmatnagar, Sabarkantha, Dahod, Mehsana, Palanpur, Rajpipla, Rajkot, Nadiad, Junagadh and Bhuj.

According to an official in 2003, when Modi had first decided to unfurl the tricolour at Patan, Congress dismissed it an 'extravaganza', and got Vithal Pandya, father of slain BJP leader and minister Haren Pandya, to hoist the flag at Gandhinagar, the capital of Gujarat.

"When he told us that he wanted a change in venue, we expected him to go for a business centre like Surat or a cultural capital like Vadodara, but he chose Patan, the capital of the Solanki dynasty, the last Hindu kings who ruled over much of present-day Gujarat.  "The programmes over the two days had a distinct Hindu flavour to it with residents being asked to light more than 1,000 lamps on the I-Day evening. Modi also revived 'tolling of bells' and 'singing of patriotic songs at dawn' in Patan which continued later too," said an official who had worked with Modi.