Politics

Indian PM Narendra Modi’s mother dies at 99

New Delhi, Dec 30 (EFE).- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi lost his 99-year-old mother on Friday who lived a childhood “of poverty and deprivation.”

“A glorious century rests at the feet of God… In Maa, I have always felt that trinity, which contains the journey of an ascetic, the symbol of a selfless karma yogi, and a life committed to values,” Modi tweeted to announce the death of Heeraben.

“When I met her on her 100th birthday, she said one thing which I always remember: work with intelligence, live life with purity,” Modi said.

Heeraben was unwell, and her health had deteriorated in recent days before she was admitted to a hospital in Modi’s home state of Gujarat in western India.

Heeraben lived in a Gujarat village with the prime minister’s younger brother and his family.

Modi used to visit her frequently on important occasions and festivals to seek her blessings.

The last time they appeared on camera together was on Dec. 4, when the prime minister was campaigning for state elections in Gujarat for his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.

Modi traveled to Gujarat early in the morning to perform the last rites for his mother.

Online videos and pictures showed Modi carrying the coffin before he lit her funeral pyre in Gandhinagar, the state capital.

Modi was supposed to inaugurate a series of activities at the other end of the country and announced that he would attend them virtually.

Modi wrote in a June blog post that his mother was born in Visnagar, Gujarat, quite close to his hometown of Vadnagar.

He wrote that her “childhood was one of poverty and deprivation.”

He said she was forced to grow beyond her age.

“In her childhood, she used to take care of the entire family and manage all the chores and after marriage too, she picked up all these responsibilities,” he said.

She lived in a “tiny house” in Vadnagar, Gujarat, after marriage.

The house “did not even have a window, let alone a luxury like a toilet or a bathroom,” Modi said.

His mother never accompanied Modi to any government or public events.

She was with him on only two occasions in the past.

The last instance was when he first took oath as Gujarat’s Chief Minister in 2001.

“The oath-taking ceremony held two decades ago was the last public event that Mother attended with me. Since then, she has never accompanied me to a single public event,” Modi said. EFE

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