Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 15, 2024, gave his 11th consecutive Independence Day speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort, New Delhi. PM Modi delivered a historic 98-minute speech, his longest I-Day speech till now, and touched almost every issue. PM Modi's Independence Day Speech 2024 touched on issues like the One Nation One Election, and the Uniform Civil Code which he addressed as the 'Secular Civil Code' and also made multiple promises to the youths of the country including 75,000 new seats for medical education. Not only this but PM Modi also talked about women's safety in the backdrop of the Kolkata doctor rape & murder case in the state-run RG Kar College & Hospital. However, there are a few issues that PM Modi failed to highlight in his longest Independence Day Speech 2024. Below are the top 6 issues which PM Modi failed to address-
1) Delhi Coaching students' deaths
While the matter is under investigation, PM Modi did not touch the issue of the deaths of three USPC students who died due to flooding in Rau's IAS Study Circle's basement. For the unversed, on July 25, three UPSC aspirants - Shreya Yadav from Ambedkar Nagar, Uttar Pradesh, Tanya Soni from Telangana, and Nivin Dalwin from Ernakulam, Kerala - died after a library housed in the basement of Rau's IAS centre was flooded, reportedly leading to the failure of the single biometric entry and exit point in the coaching centre.
The deaths of three IAS aspirants had led to a massive students' protest against the Delhi Government, Centre, and the local administration. Deaths of students highlighted key issues or problems that are prevailing in the national capital, especially in areas where students from all over India come to prepare for government jobs.
2) No words on the Hindenburg-Adani-SEBI controversy
PM Modi also did not utter a word on the sensational Hindenberg report that accused the SEBI Chief and her husband of being involved in Adani's alleged corporate scam. While many social media users accused Hindenberg of publishing misleading reports and the Indian stock market did not dip after its report, PM Modi did not address the issue slamming the US Short Seller entity.
Communist Party of India General Secretary D Raja was quoted saying, "What is he going to do with the Hindenburg allegations? All institutions are compromised, and SEBI is compromised. The Election Commission was compromised earlier. PM could not address any genuine issue that country is facing today."
3) Pakistan Occupied Kashmir
While PM Modi talked about Jammu & Kashmir and the government-driven on-ground development, he did say anything about Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK). Notably, getting back the PoK is one of the top agendas of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) but no words on it from the Prime Minister was indeed surprising.
Interestingly, during his 2016 Independence Day Speech, PM Modi had talked about the PoK. In 2016, Narendra Modi became the first Indian leader to use Independence Day speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort to raise issues of Pak-occupied Kashmir. In 2016, PM also criticised Pakistan for supporting cross-border terrorism and praising terrorists who kill innocent people on Indian soil in the Kashmir Valley and elsewhere.
4) Unemployment
PM Modi during his address on the occasion of Independence Day said that doors of opportunities are wide open for the Indian youth around the world and after eluding for so many years after independence, countless new employment opportunities are now at their doorstep.
However, The India Employment Report of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) cautioned policymakers about increasing unemployment rate in the country, particularly among youths. The 2024 report stated that youngsters across the world are unable to find secure work and their chances of finding a job decrease as the income level of the country they reside in decreases.
5) Job Security
PM Modi did not touch the sensitive issue of job security specially at a time when the working class are enduring mass layoffs by multiple companies. For the unversed, Reliance, India’s largest conglomerate, reduced its workforce by 11%, or more than 42,000 people, in the financial year ended March 2024. The conglomerate also slowed hiring, bringing on board about 171,000 people in the financial year, lower than the around 263,000 people it hired a year earlier, according to its annual report. The company said more than 143,000 employees opted for “voluntary separations.”
Not only Reliance but multiple companies including Byjus have fired hundreds of employees. As a result, there are demands from the working class there should be a law that safeguards their rights, especially in the private sector.
6) Balochistan
Balochistan is also among the key issues that PM Modi did not address this year's Independence Day. In 2016, PM Modi said that ever since he talked about the Pakistani establishment's record on human rights abuse in Balochistan, Gilgit and PoK, he had been flooded with messages of gratitude by people from those areas.