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India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivers a speech from the Red Fort to mark the country's 68th Independence Day in New Delhi on August 15, 2014. Modi condemned a spate of rapes as a source of shame for India and urged an end to communal violence on August 15 as he vowed to improve the lives of the nation's poor in his first Independence Day speech. PRAKASH SINGH/AFP/Getty Images

Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his first Independence Day address to the nation from the iconic Red Fort in New Delhi on Friday as India celebrated its 68 years of independence.

Here are some of the top quotes from Modi’s speech:

  1. It is a tribute to Indian democracy that a person from a poor family, an ordinary family, is today addressing the nation from the Red Fort.

  2. I come from a poor family and I want the poor to get dignity. We want to start a movement for a clean India. If we have to build a nation, let us start from the villages.

  3. India used to be known as the land of snake charmers. Today, our IT professionals have left the world spellbound.

  4. Our heads hang in shame when we hear about rapes. Parents ask about daughters but did anyone dare ask their sons. After all, the rapist is someone's son. As parents, have we asked our sons where he is going? Why not put same yardstick for sons too?

  5. India's sex ratio is 1000 boys for 940 girls. Who creates this disparity? It isn't God. Don't fill your coffers by sacrificing the mother's womb. People feel that sons will take care of them when they are old. But I have seen aged parents in old-age homes. I have seen families where one daughter serves parents more than five sons.

  6. The times have changed since the Planning Commission was created. In a short span of time we will initiative a new institution that will work in place of the Planning Commission.

  7. Be it caste or communal violence, they stall the growth of the nation. Let us affirm that we will be free from these tensions.

  8. I tell the world - Come, Make In India. Sell anywhere but manufacture here. We have the skill and talent.

  9. Politicians haven't made this nation, parties haven't made this nation, governments haven't made this nation. Instead it is the farmers, scientists and common people who have built this nation.

  10. We have had enough of divisiveness and communal wounds inflicted on Mother India. Peace and brotherhood will give strength to take the country forwards. I am sure it can be done.

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