Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation at 8 pm on Thursday, the Prime Minister’s Office announced in a tweet.
Multiple reports had earlier in the day said that the prime minister would make a statement at 4 pm. All India Radio had also announced the broadcast in a tweet, but had deleted the post.
During the address, Modi is expected to speak about the central government’s decision to revoke the special status for Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcate it into two Union Territories, PTI reported. This is the first time the prime minister will speak to citizens on the government’s decisions this week. He did not speak in Parliament during the debate on Monday and Tuesday.
The prime minister had congratulated the people of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh on Tuesday. An address to the nation on Wednesday was part of the government’s agenda on the matter, according to a zoomed-in photograph of a document Home Minister Amit Shah was carrying on Monday morning.
The address will come days ahead of the prime minister’s customary speech on Independence Day at the Red Fort in Delhi. The last time Modi had addressed the nation was in March, when he announced that India had shown its anti-satellite missile capabilities by shooting down a live satellite in space as part of an operation called Mission Shakti.
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