In Bharat, a mother's word is a child's first constitution. An oath is sworn in a moment. A promise to a mother is kept for a lifetime. That takes character.
The 2001 earthquake broke Bhuj. Gujarat lay in rubble. Duty called a karyakarta. Before taking charge, he went first to his mother. She knew little of his work, she told him, and sought only two things. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has himself placed her words on record: "First, you will always work for the poor, and second, you will never take a bribe."
He took the oath of office on October 7, 2001. This October 7, he will complete 25 continuous years of public service in the high offices of Chief Minister and Prime Minister. His devoted service to Bharat spans more than six decades. On his birthday, September 17, the nation marks the occasion the only way he would wish, with a season of seva. Milestones are counted in years. Leadership is measured in trust. So let the record speak, one promise at a time.
The First Promise: Work For The Poor
Begin where he began, with the poor. Nearly 25 crore Indians have walked out of poverty in a decade, certified by the world's top institutions. Every flagship scheme was built to uplift the ordinary Indian. The Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and mobile trinity, the world's largest digital public infrastructure, put a bank account in the poorest hand; 59 crore stand today. Tap water now runs in nearly 16 crore rural households. Free foodgrain reaches over 80 crore Indians. A health cover of 5 lakh rupees for crores, a clean flame, a roof of one's own: to the citizen who finally received them, these are not statistics. They are the distance between fear and dignity.
He never saw the poor as a vote bank, but as "the very last person in the queue", potential waiting to be unleashed. Unleashed it has been: crores who were claimants on the State are today contributors to its rise.
The Second Promise, Sworn On Affidavit
The second promise is rarer in our politics, and easier to test. At Varanasi in 2024, the head of government of the world's most populous nation and fourth-biggest world economy declared on oath that his immovable assets were nil. No house. No land. No car. Leaving Gandhinagar in 2014, he gave Rs 21 lakh of his savings to educate the daughters of the Gujarat government staff, and the Rs 89.96 crore raised by auctioning every gift of his Chief Ministership went to girls' education. Time and again, the savings from his own salary have gone the same way, to charity.
An affidavit is public life's most unforgiving document. His, after more than 25 years in power, reads like a sage's. He built the same probity into the system. Bharat remembers what he replaced: the 2G, coal, and CWG era, a UPA government synonymous with the worst form of corruption, cronyism, and policy paralysis. Rajiv Gandhi lamented that of every rupee Delhi sent, barely 15 paise reached the poor. Through DBT, the whole rupee now reaches the hand it was meant for. Motivated persons in the opposition called him names; one even put those words in the Supreme Court's mouth, and had to apologise unconditionally. Clean hands were a mother's condition, and he has abided by it devoutly.
Laws By Indians, For Indians
More than 1,500 archaic laws struck off. Some 40,000 needless compliances lifted from citizen and enterprise, enhancing ease of living and ease of doing business. Criminal codes written by rulers for subjects gave way to laws written by Indians for Indians. GST, called impossible for a generation, made India one market. Article 370 was folded into history, its abrogation upheld by a Constitution Bench. Ayodhya, our longest-running dispute, found resolution, and Ram Lalla his temple. A state that once stood in the citizen's path has learned, statute by statute, to step aside. For a lawyer, that is the quiet revolution: power recast as duty.
Seva, A Way Of Life
Seva is not his slogan. It is his whole life. For three decades before he held any office, he served as a pracharak, and during the Emergency, he went underground, in disguise, to defend the democracy he would one day lead. Then came the Chief Minister who rebuilt Kutch and Gujarat, and the Prime Minister who bowed at the steps of Parliament and worked as Pradhan Sevak. Rajpath became Kartavya Path, and his office left the colonial South Block for an address called Seva Teerth. When a man has lived seva for six decades, even the buildings around him learn the word.
Six Mandates, Never Refused
Democracy is the one court whose verdict no public man can appeal. Six times he has stood before it as his party's face, in Gujarat in 2002, 2007, and 2012, across India in 2014, 2019, and 2024. He has never been refused. In March, he became the longest-serving head of an elected government in India's history, and in June, our longest continuously serving elected Prime Minister. Between the two, Bengal elected its first BJP government. Trust that endures this long is not luck. It is earned, ballot after ballot.
The Fastest Climb On Earth
In 2014, India was the world's eleventh-largest economy. Then came the climb. Through tariffs and an oil shock, India grew 7.8% last quarter, the fastest of any major economy, output up close to 90% since 2014 against the world's barely 35%. Read that again: nearly three times the world's pace. The fundamentals hold firm: forex reserves at an all-time high, and inflation in check despite costlier crude. A startup nation of two lakh ventures, a third led by women. The last person in the queue is now part of the climb, and India is firmly on course to become the world's third-largest economy. Onward, and upward.
From Pleading To Proposing
Uri was answered with surgical strikes, Pulwama with Balakot, Pahalgam with Operation Sindoor, each with the cold precision of a state that has stopped pleading and started deciding. Naxal violence, which scarred 126 districts in 2014, stands confined to two. This month, eleven nations adopted the New Delhi Declaration under his BRICS chairship at Bharat Mandapam. Nearly three dozen nations have conferred their highest civilian honours on him; each one, he says, belongs to the people of India. The old powers no longer ask what India will accept. They ask what India proposes.
A Life Without Leave
None of it came free. He left home in his teens and wandered India for years, learning her from her dust and her people. PM Modi has availed no leave since taking office. The starkest proof came on December 30, 2022. That morning, he carried his mother's bier on his shoulder. Within hours, he was on a video link, flagging off Bengal's Vande Bharat and apologising for not coming in person. His tribute recalled the counsel she gave: "Kaam karo buddhi se aur jeevan jiyo shuddhi se." Work with wisdom. Live with purity.
The Third Promise: Viksit Bharat
A mother sought two promises: work for the poor, and uphold the highest standards of integrity and probity. Her son has kept both devotedly, through every office and every election. The nation of 140 crore has been their beneficiary every single day.
On them now rests a third, made to every Indian: Viksit Bharat. Its foundation is laid, deep and strong. His energy for the task is remarkable: at the BRICS Summit, he chaired every session and still held 17 bilaterals in two days. A son who never broke a promise to his mother will not break this one. He will lead Bharat to it.
No admirer can pay a truer tribute on his birthday than the record itself: every promise kept, in a lifetime pledged to Bharat.
(The author is a Senior Advocate practising in the Supreme Court of India)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
