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Monday, August 11, 2025
TopicGreat Speeches

Topic: Great Speeches

‘Avoid parties, grand weddings’– Lal Bahadur Shastri on India’s 1964 food shortage

In his broadcast to the nation on 19 October 1964, Lal Bahadur Shastri addressed India’s dependence on food imports, calling austerity the need of the hour.

For Minoo Masani, Indira Gandhi’s bank nationalisation Bill ‘came in the dark, like a thief’

On 25 July 1969 in Lok Sabha, Rajkot MP Minoo Masani listed the economic and political grounds on which his Swatantra Party opposed the Indira Gandhi government's Bill to nationalise private banks.

Rajiv Gandhi launched his 1989 election campaign from Lucknow. This is what he said

'Many rumours have been spread, many lies have been spread about Babri Masjid and Ramjanmabhoomi,' Gandhi had said in Lucknow on 19 November 1989.

Rajendra Prasad’s Somnath temple inauguration speech that AIR ‘blacked out’ in 1951

On 11 May 1951, then-President Dr Rajendra Prasad attended the opening of Somnath temple in Gujarat despite Nehru's opposition, and spoke about Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's idea of restoring the temple to commemorate the restoration of Indian unity.

Aren’t poverty and need the greatest polluters? Indira Gandhi

On 14 June 1972, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's speech at the UN conference on environment in Stockholm called out the hypocrisy of rich nations that advanced due to industrialisation by exploiting natural resources and labour of colonised countries but now expect developing nations to be mindful of not causing damage to the environment.

‘Peace-lovers to what extent?’ Syama Prasad Mookerjee on why India could lose Kashmir

In his speech on 7 August 1952 in Lok Sabha, Mookerjee spoke about the fear that the Kashmir policy with regard to UN and Article 370 'may lead to the 'Balkanisation' of India'.

It was to avoid war with Pakistan that we went to the Security Council—Nehru on Kashmir

On 31 January 1957, the Indian prime minister delivered a speech at Island Grounds in Madras where he spoke about the UN resolution and the conditions laid out for a plebiscite in J&K.

S Radhakrishnan’s appeal to ‘brave people of Nagaland’—forget past rancour, write new chapter

On 1 December 1963, President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan delivered a speech to the people on the inauguration of Nagaland, the 16th state of the Indian Union.

India lost independence once. Can Constitution prevent another loss, Ambedkar asked

On 25 November 1949, Dr BR Ambedkar delivered his last speech to the Constituent Assembly, which formally adopted India’s Constitution the following day. Ambedkar’s speech, outlining three warnings for an independent India, holds importance even today.

On Camera

MBBS guidelines for students with disabilities reduce a life to a limb

The guidelines ask whether a student can climb stairs, but not whether the college has a ramp. They ask whether a student can bear weight, but not whether the system can bear the weight of its own prejudice.

How mining, manufacturing & power sectors weighed on India’s industrial output since January 2024

India’s industrial output growth saw a 10-month low in June, with Index of Industrial Production (IIP) growing by mere 1.5% as against 1.9% in May 2025.

Legacy of Air Chief Marshal LM Katre, the man who flew Spitfires & ushered IAF into a modern era

ACM Katre was 2nd IAF chief to die in harness. It was at a memorial lecture in his honour where IAF chief AP Singh revealed that India shot down 6 Pakistani aircraft in Op Sindoor.

Modi’s ready to risk it all for farmers. Farm reform can answer Trump with new Green Revolution

Standing up to America is usually not a personal risk for a leader in India. Any suggestions of foreign pressure unites India behind who they see as leading them in that fight.