Indian PM Narendra Modi’s mother Heeraben dies at 99

Modi used to regularly visit his mother on important occasions and festivals to seek her blessings

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s mother Heeraben Modi has died at the age of 99.

Mr Modi, who used to visit his mother often to seek her blessings on important occasions and festivals, performed her last rites in Gandhinagar city in western Gujarat state on Friday morning.

“A glorious century rests at the feet of God,” Mr Modi said in a tweet to pay tribute to his mother.

“In Maa, I have always felt that trinity, which contains the journey of an ascetic, the symbol of a selfless Karmayogi and a life committed to values.”

Heeraben had been admitted to a hospital on Wednesday with high-blood pressure issues.

On Friday, the UN Mehta Heart Hospital said she passed away at 3.30am local time while undergoing treatment at the hospital.

Mr Modi was seen visiting the hospital to meet his centenary mother and remained there for more than an hour.

Born on 18 June 1923, Heeraben is survived by five sons and one daughter – Somabhai, Amritbhai, Narendra, Prahlad, Pankaj and daughter Vasantiben.

The prime minister visited his mother to celebrate her 99th birthday and penned an emotional note in his blog, saying: “My Mother is as simple as she is extraordinary. Just like all mothers!”

He traced his mother’s struggles in her childhood, saying she lost her mother to the Spanish Flu pandemic and did not get her affection while growing up.

File: Narendra Modi with his mother Heeraben Modi on 16 May 2014 in Ahmedabad, India (Getty Images)

“She does not even remember my grandmother’s face or the comfort of her lap. She spent her entire childhood without her mother. She could not throw tantrums at her mother, as we all do,” he added.

“She could not rest in her mother’s lap like we all do. She could not even go to school and learn to read and write.

“Her childhood was one of poverty and deprivation.”

On Friday, Mr Modi remembered his mother’s words when he met him for her 99th birthday.

“When I met her on her 100th birthday, she said one thing, which I always keep in mind, that work with intelligence, live life with purity,” he wrote in Hindi and Gujarat.

Condolences poured soon after the announcement as several ministers, his party and opposition members, as well as other prominent people from all walks of life expressed sorrow on Mr Modi’s loss.

Opposition Congress party politician Rahul Gandhi said: “At this difficult time, I extend my deepest condolences and love to him and his family.”

President Droupadi Murmu said Mr Modi imbibed the spirit of “honour your mother as God” and the values of Heeraben in life.

“Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s mother Heeraba’s hundred years of struggling life is a symbol of Indian ideals,” she said. “I pray for the peace of the holy soul. My condolences to the family!”

After cremating his mother, Mr Modi resumed work and joined the scheduled inauguration ceremony of Vande Bharat express train in West Bengal through video conferencing and virtually flagged off the first train.

Addressing the ceremony, Mr Modi apologised for not attending the event physically due to her mother’s demise before beginning his speech.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, one of the most vocal critics of prime minister, urged him to take some rest, adding “your mother is our mother”.

“Please take some rest, I don’t know how to condole your mother’s death, your mother is our mother. I remember my mother also,” she told Mr Modi.