India marks 69th Independence Day

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday marked the nation's 69th Independence Day with ‎a ‎traditional speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort in New Delhi, holding out his ‎government's ‎poverty alleviation schemes but was thin on plans for the future and made no mention of ‎the ‎setbacks to his economic reform agenda. In his second Independence Day speech commemorating ‎India’s freedom from British rule on ‎August 15, 1947, Modi spoke for nearly 2 hours on issues ranging ‎from ending black money to ensuring every school in the country has toilets, saying his government has ‎done much to fulfill the promises it made since coming to power in May last year.   Modi won a resounding election ‎victory largely because of his promises to revive India's slacking economy and put an ‎end to a slew of corruption scandals that the ruling Congress party was mired in.  But achieving his ‎ambitious reform agenda has proved hard, with both his land and tax reform proposals stalled by the ‎opposition. ‎

August 15, 1947, also marks the partitioning of India into India and Pakistan. Despite the chill between the two neighbours, in the wake of recent attacks in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, ‎ Modi greeted Pakistanis with a tweet on their Independence Day, observed the ‎previous day, August 14.