Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has urged bureaucrats to abandon negativity and never compromise on the unity and integrity of the country.
In an address to mark National Civil Service Day in Delhi, the Prime Minister said officers should pursue this vision, even if they worked at local levels.
“No matter what we do, be it at the local levels and in villages, never lose sight of the fact that the unity and integrity of the country are supreme,” Mr Modi said.
Whatever system we create, whatever decisions we take, always ask whether they strengthen the unity and integrity of India,” he said.
“India first, the nation first, should be the benchmark of our work.”
Mr Modi implored Public Servants to “break out of the mentality of indifference and live freely”.
“During the past eight years, many big things with behavioural change have taken place, and people should change their behaviour towards old customs,” he said.
National Civil Services Day celebrates the efforts of Public Servants across Departments to keep the administrative machinery of the world’s largest democracy functioning smoothly.
It also commemorates the day in 1947 when India’s first Minister of Home Affairs, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (pictured) initially welcomed the newly-formed and newly-appointed officers of the Indian Administrative Service, referring to them as the “steel frame of India”.
New Delhi, 21 April 2022
