As India completed 75 years of Independence today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation and reminded the people of the contribution of freedom fighters and leaders from the political spectrum.
Addressing the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort on the 76th Independence Day, Modi said the citizens of the country are grateful to Mahatma Gandhi, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Babasaheb Ambedkar and Veer Savarkar who spent their lives on the path of duty.
“The nation is also grateful to Mangal Pandey, Tatya Tope, Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Rajguru, Chandrashekhar Azad, Ashfaqulla Khan and Ram Prasad Bismil. Many such innumerable revolutionaries shook the foundation of the British rule”, Modi said.
He said, This nation is grateful to those brave women, be it Rani Lakshmibai, Jhalkari Bai, Durga Bhabhi, Rani Gaidinliu, Rani Chennamma, Begum Hazrat Mahal, Velu Nachiyar, who showed the mettle of women power of India.
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The country also salutes those who not only fought for its freedom but also worked for nation-building after Independence such as Jawaharlal Nehru, Ram Manohar Lohia and Sardar Vallabhai Patel among others, the prime minister said. “India has been home to great thinkers like Vivekananda, Aurobindo and Rabindranath Tagore,” he said.
Modi also paid tributes to Dr Rajendra Prasad, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Syama Prasad Mookerjee, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Deendayal Upadhyaya, Ram Manohar Lohia, Nanaji Deshmukh, Jayaprakash Narayan and Acharya Vinoda Bhave.
Kittur Chennamma (14 November 1778 – 21 February 1829) was the Indian Queen (Rani) of Kittur (Belagavi District), a former princely state in present-day Karnataka. She led an armed resistance against the British East India Company in 1824, in defiance of the Paramountancy, in an attempt to retain control over her dominion. She defeated the Company in the first revolt, but died as a prisoner of war after the second rebellion. As one of the first and few female rulers to lead rebel forces against British colonisation, she continues to be remembered as a folk hero in Karnataka, she is also an important symbol of the Indian independence movement.
