Modi speech: In Op Sindoor year, ‘strength’ features prominently

New Delhi: In his longest Independence Day address to date, which lasted 103 minutes, Prime Minister Narendra Modi touched on a wide range of subjects, from ‘Made-in-India’ semiconductors to a new employment incentive scheme.

ThePrint conducted a word cloud analysis of Modi’s Independence Day speeches from 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. Here’s what we found.

‘Country’, ‘India’ and ‘today’ were the three most used words in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

In 2024, the three most used words were ‘country’, ‘new’ and ‘Bharat’. This year, ‘country’ and ‘today’ were retained but ‘deshvasiyon’ (countrymen) stood out, a word used frequently by the Prime Minister to address the people, and to open his speech.

Addressing the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort, this year Modi opened his speech with “mere pyaare deshvasiyon” (my dear countrymen). In 2024, he began his address with chants of “Bharat Mata ki Jai,” followed by the usual opening phrase.

There was some deviation in 2022, when he opened his speech by congratulating fellow countrymen on 75 years of independence. In that respect, 2023 stood out, when Modi opened his Independence Day speech with “my dear 140 crore family members”.

‘Youth’ appears as one of the most used words in all five speeches, especially gaining more uses in 2024 and 2025. This time, ‘strength’ also stood out as one of the most used words, compared to previous years, marking the year of direct conflict with Pakistan.

‘Farmers’ is another word that is used more in 2025 in comparison to previous years, along with ‘self-reliance’, ‘tribal’ and ‘energy’. On the 75th Independence Day as well as the 76th, ‘amrit’ and ‘mahotsav’ were words that stood out, absent from his speeches since.

While ‘development’ featured in the 2025 speech, there was no mention of ‘infrastructure’, a word that usually makes headlines. The word took a top spot in 2021, and has been missing from Modi’s Independence Day speeches since.