The Prime Minister has called for making India free from poverty, communal violence and crimes against women and usher in a new era of development. In his maiden Independence Day speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort after unfurling the tri-colour Mr. Narendra Modi asked the countrymen to take a pledge to make India clean by 2019, the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

Mr. Modi asked the people to take the path of peace, unity and brotherhood to take the country to newer heights. Lamenting over the incidents of communal and caste violence, he said that the country should be freed from these tensions as they hinder the growth of the nation. He said no one has gained from terrorism and Maoism and advised people involved in such activities to engage themselves in constructive work instead of carrying guns on their shoulders.

The Prime Minister said, he wants to take the country forward on the strength of consensus and not the majority. He termed the female foeticide as a blot on the 21st century India and asked the parents not to kill daughters in the womb. He said increasing incidents of rapes are matter of shame and asked parents to impose restrictions on their sons to curb the scourge.

Commending sports persons for bringing laurels to the nation in international sporting events,he said, he is proud of India's daughters who have won medals. Earlier the Prime Minister paid floral tributes to the father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi at his samadhi at Rajghat in New Delhi this morning. He is the first Prime Minister born after Independence to hoist the national flag from the ramparts of the Red Fort.

AIR correspondent reports that in a departure from the past, Prime Minister Modi spoke extempore instead of reading from a scripted speech. In another break from the past, the Prime Minister delivered his speech without a bullet-proof shield at his podium. There was yet another break from tradition as more than 10,000 common people were present on the occasion which is usually meant for VIPs.