PM Narendra Modi credits all PMs for India's progress

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday praised all his predecessors and previous governments for contributing to India's development.

"All prime ministers, previous governments have contributed (to develop the country)," Modi said in his maiden Independence Day address from the Red Fort here.

"All governments in the states have also contributed. I offer my respects to them."

Modi went on: "Let us walk together, think together, and make a determination to take ahead the nation together."

The Prime Minister underlined the need for national consensus.

"We are not those who want to move ahead on the basis of our mandate," he said, in a clear reference to the BJP's parliamentary majority. "We want to walk together with consensus."