PM Modi addresses the nation on India’s 69th Independence Day:

Over the last 15 months, there has been no charge of corruption against the BJP-led government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared today from the ramparts of the Red Fort. His comments come in the backdrop of a rancorous Parliament session, dogged by Congress allegations of corruption involving some of his top leaders and ministers.”India can be free of corruption… We have taken steps to correct the system,” he said. As example, he mentioned the coal block auction — a reminder of the major political scandal during the erstwhile UPA government over the allocation of coal blocks die to which the exchequer lost Rs. 1.86 lakh crore.”Coal block auction has been undertaken by the government… About Rs.3 lakh crore will come into the exchequer. Ask yourself. Has corruption gone or not? Did the doors of corruption in the country close or not? We have done it,” he said.The government’s crackdown on illegal wealth through the framing of the anti-black money law, he said, was another such instance. The new law on illegal wealth has made people fearful of stashing black money abroad.

Comparing corruption to an infestation of termites, he said it has become “part of the system,” and admitted that the problem went to the top. “I want to reaffirm that this nation will get rid of corruption. We can rid the country of corruption, we have to start from the top,” said Modi.Through the recently concluded Monsoon Session of Parliament, the Congress, which is the main Opposition party, targetted the government demanding the resignations of BJP ministers Sushma Swaraj, Vasundhara Raje and Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who, the party claimed, had been named in various scandals.The scandals have been particularly embarrassing as the BJP victory in the last year’s general elections was built partly on a pledge to clean up the government after a series of scams under the previous Congress-led administration.