PM Modi tells Seva Yatris: Service must remain the primary duty, politics no exception

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that service must remain the primary duty of those in public life and stressed that its message should be conveyed through action rather than preaching, as he interacted with participants of the ongoing Seva Yatra linking his birthplace Vadnagar in Gujarat with his parliamentary constituency Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.

Interacting with the young Seva Yatris through video conferencing, Modi said their conduct should demonstrate that political power and public service cannot be separated. “Service should be our primary duty, and while serving, we should convey the message of service. We should not preach about service; we should convey its message through our actions,” he said.

“Through our own conduct, people should see that no matter how powerful we become in politics, or how high a position we attain, our path will always remain the path of service,” the Prime Minister added. He also invoked the principle of “Seva Parmo Dharma”, saying the path of service should not be abandoned irrespective of the position or stature one attains.

The Seva Yatra is part of the month-long Seva Sankalp Abhiyan being organised to mark Modi’s 25 years in public life. The twin motorcycle journeys were flagged off on September 17, his 76th birthday, with teams travelling between Vadnagar and Varanasi. The journeys are scheduled to conclude on October 7.

The initiative is designed to take the idea of public service beyond ceremonial events and into towns, districts, talukas and villages along the routes. Ten groups are undertaking the motorcycle expedition, engaging with local communities and participating in activities centred on social welfare, cleanliness, youth participation, public outreach and community mobilisation.

During the interaction, the participants shared their experiences of meeting people in villages and towns and carrying out service-oriented activities. These include cleanliness drives and visits to schools, hospitals and nursing homes, besides interactions with beneficiaries of government schemes and other community engagement programmes.

The Yatris also told Modi about their efforts to encourage people to join the NaMo App and about their interactions with beneficiaries of central government schemes, including the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. Their experiences highlighted the attempt to connect the political message of public service with direct engagement at the grassroots.

Modi praised the participants for undertaking the journey despite the challenges of continuous travel and changing weather conditions, and linked their efforts to the larger objective of involving young people in nation-building. The Seva Yatra, he said, represented a continuation of the journey from “Jan Seva” to “Desh Seva” — from serving people at the grassroots to serving the nation.

The broader Seva Sankalp Abhiyan was launched from Vadnagar on September 17 by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel. The Vadnagar-Varanasi motorcycle journey was conceived as one of the major programmes marking Modi’s 25 years in public life.

The choice of the two destinations carries personal and political significance: Vadnagar is associated with Modi’s early life, while Varanasi has been his Lok Sabha constituency since 2014. The two-way journey therefore seeks to symbolically connect the beginning of his public journey with the constituency from which he has represented Parliament for more than a decade.

The Prime Minister’s interaction also placed emphasis on the distinction between speaking about service and demonstrating it. The Seva Yatris are travelling not merely as participants in a motorcycle expedition but as volunteers undertaking community activities along the route, with the stated objective of carrying the message of service to the grassroots.

Modi also shared an old saying about the spiritual merit associated with a journey, telling the participants that when someone returns from a journey and is greeted by others, the person offering the greeting is believed to share in its merit. In a light-hearted remark, he said that by greeting the Seva Yatris, he too was “stealing” half the merit of their journey.

The Seva Yatra is scheduled to continue through October 7, with the participating teams combining their motorcycle journey with cleanliness drives, community interactions and other service activities as they move through different parts of the country.