When all patriots marched towards Red Fort to listen to Modi

At 6 am, all lanes in Old Delhi led to Red Fort as a sea of people made its way towards it to witness the unfurling of the tricolour and listen to the Prime Minister.

The diversity and patriotism among the crowd at the celebration of 69 years of Independence was stark and visible. People from across the country had poured in to be a part of the celebration.

Witnessing the celebration live at the Red Fort was a first for many of them.
Hanif Ghansar, an insurance officer from Ratnagiri district in Maharashtra, and his
two friends had travelled all night to hear Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“We watch the ceremony every year on our television sets and always wanted to be at Red Fort. We thought this is a good occasion because we will also get to hear Narendra Modi live,” he said.

Asked about his expectations from the speech, Hanif said, “I want him to speak on terrorism and on concerns of minority communities. Even though I am from a minority community, I don't feel insecure. But there are others who might have faced certain incidents. The politicians are good but there are some fringe elements which create nuisance.”

When the two LED screens showed Modi, sporting a turban, taking the stage, the crowd broke into cheers.

Modi began by recounting the struggle for freedom and a part of the audience burst into 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' chants. For Yamine, Arasanathi and Srinivasan, students from Chennai, it was difficult to comprehend what the Prime Minister was saying as they don’t understand Hindi.

Travel plans
The three had booked their trains tickets for a trip to North India later but advanced their travel plans so that they could be a part of the ceremony.

Even though they knew they would not be able to understand most of the speech, they wanted to witness the proceedings live.

“Not everyone gets a chance to see the flag-hoisting on Independence Day. We are lucky to be part of this. We wish there was a translator for the speech, but we are not regretting coming here,” says Yamine.

At one point, when one of the LED screens showed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal sitting in the VIP area, the audience started hooting and some sneered.

The loudest cheer and whistles from the crowd came when Modi mentioned that people in Balochistan, Gilgit, and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) have thanked him in the past few days.

“He has sent a strong message to Pakistan,” said 28-year-old Sikandar. As the weather got humid, people started getting restless and many of them left even as the Prime Minister was in the middle of his speech.

However, there were others who felt that Modi did not address some important issues like attack on minorities and Dalits, and unemployment, which they were expecting. While Salman, a motor mechanic, wanted the Prime Minister to talk about price rise, Bandari Sri Sainath wanted him to say something on the contentious issue of special status for Andhra Pradesh. 

The happiest were the school children, who formed the numeral 70 with their yellow and blue uniforms. Besides the excitement of getting various refreshments, many of them got to shake hands with the Prime Minister after his speech.