India celebrates
▶ Modi uses Independence Day speech to reinforce security as country’s top priority – and call for tolerance
Prime minister Narendra Modi greets schoolchildren during India’s Independence Day celebrations in New Delhi.
India can defend itself from anyone who seeks “to act against our country”, prime minister Narendra Modi said yesterday in an Independence Day speech.
“Security is our top priority,” Mr Modi told thousands at the Red Fort in New Delhi as the country marked the 70th anniversary of the end of British colonial rule.
“Be it by the sea or the borders, cyber or space, in all spheres India is capable and we are strong enough to overcome those who try to act against our country.”
His remarks came as New Delhi’s dispute with Beijing over a Himalayan plateau enters its third month today, with hundreds of soldiers in a stand-off.
The neighbours share a long history of mistrust and went to war in 1962 over the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, a territory that is still in dispute.
India is also mired in a border row with Pakistan over Himalayan Kashmir since their split in 1947.
It accuses Pakistan of sending terrorists across the border to fight security forces in Indian-administered Kashmir, which is divided between the rival neighbours.
Kashmir has been a source of conflict between them since they were created by the Partition of India in 1947.
In his speech, Mr Modi appeared conciliatory towards the Muslim-majority Kashmir, where violent protests against Indian rule have taken place over the past year.
He said neither “name-calling nor bullets” would be enough to pacify the region, and that what was needed were hugs for Kashmiris.
Mr Modi also called on Indians to reject religious violence, after a series of attacks against minorities sparked debate about whether a surge of Hindu nationalism was undermining the country’s secular principles.
Mr Modi has spoken out against attacks by right-wing Hindus, many of whom back his Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, against minority Muslims and lower-caste Hindus accused of killing cattle, considered holy by the majority of Hindus.
But the setting of his denunciation of violence yesterday was significant.
“We will not tolerate violence in the name of faith,” Mr Modi said before a teeming crowd at the fort and a huge television audience.
He also expressed pain over the death of at least 60 children in a state-run hospital last week amid shortages of supplies – a reminder much remains to be done on India’s journey to development, seven decades after independence.