Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that his life mantra was “never to do anything wrong with bad intentions,” in his podcast debut with Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath.
Modi said that humans, including him, are prone to make mistakes, but it shouldn’t be at the cost of doing things with bad intentions.
“When I became the chief minister, I gave a speech in which I said, ‘I will not shy away from hard work’ and ‘I will not do anything for myself’ and ‘I am human who can make mistakes, but I will never do anything wrong with bad intentions.’,” Modi said.
“This is my life’s Mantra. Everyone makes mistakes, including me. After all, I am a human being, not some God,” he added.
Modi’s podcast
In a two-hour podcast with Kamath, the prime minister touched upon several topics, including his early childhood in Gujarat, life in politics, the importance of ideology and idealism, policymaking and governance, global conflicts, and youth participation in politics.
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He emphasised the importance of idealism over ideology, saying that even though politics can’t happen without ideology, idealism was very much required.
He noted that Mahatma Gandhi and Savarkar had different paths, but their ideology was “freedom”.
“Idealism is far more important than ideology. Without ideology, politics can’t happen. However, idealism is very much required. Before Independence, the ideology (of freedom fighters) was freedom. Gandhi had a different path, but the ideology was freedom. Savarkar took his own path, but his ideology was freedom,” the prime minister said.
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He further pointed out that his ideology has always been to keep the nation first.
“I am not the kind of person who changes his stance as per his convenience. I have grown up believing in only one (kind of) ideology. If I were to describe my ideology in a few words, I would say, ‘Nation first’. Anything that fits into the tagline, ‘nation first’, doesn’t bind me in the shackles of ideology and tradition,” Modi said.
“It pushed us to move forward. I am ready to leave old things and embrace new ones. However, the condition is always, ‘nation first’,” he added.