By Ananya Sharma 
New Delhi, September 17: Narendra Modi turned 75 today, and the day unfolded less like a birthday celebration and more like a carefully choreographed political moment. Across states, from Madhya Pradesh to Varanasi, the Prime Minister’s milestone was marked with development launches, health camps, and welfare drives, part of a broader campaign the BJP has styled as Sewa Pakhwada.
Service Over Celebration
In Dhar, Madhya Pradesh, Modi inaugurated a raft of projects, the most prominent being the “Swasth Nari, Sashakt Pariwar” programme. It is pitched as a women-and-child health initiative but also doubles up as a show of the government’s welfare credentials. The Prime Minister also launched the 8th Rashtriya Poshan Maah, extending his government’s long-running focus on nutrition.
The timing was no coincidence. According to the Prime Minister’s Office, more than one lakh health camps will run nationwide between today and October 2. Cleanliness drives, pension enrolments, Aadhaar updates all of it tied neatly into the BJP’s narrative of service. The message is clear Modi’s 75th is not about him; it is about governance, about work, about being seen as tireless.
Back in Varanasi, his home constituency, projects worth ₹111 crore were unveiled. Roads, sanitation, urban facilities the kind of ground-level development he often cites as proof of his connect with ordinary people.
The Politics Behind The Optics
For the BJP, birthdays have long been an opportunity to mobilise. In Rajasthan, citizen service camps were rolled out; in other states, ministers and local units were tasked with amplifying the message of sewa. What could otherwise have been a personal occasion is being leveraged as a national moment, part of the larger political calendar.
But there’s also symbolism that cuts deeper. Modi crossing 75 is significant inside the BJP, a party that once nudged veterans like L.K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi into retirement at that very age. Modi’s position, however, remains unchallenged. If anything, today’s spectacle underlines his centrality and the party’s unwillingness to even hint at succession planning.
That said, being 75 will inevitably raise questions about longevity. With 2029 elections already casting a shadow, Modi seems determined to show that he is not slowing down not physically, not politically.
Messages From Friends And Foes
Birthday greetings poured in from across the political spectrum. Rahul Gandhi wished him, as did Nitish Kumar and President Droupadi Murmu. Leaders from the northeast, including the Sikkim Chief Minister, also sent their wishes.
Internationally, one call stood out Donald Trump rang up Modi. The two leaders, who forged a peculiar brand of camaraderie during Trump’s presidency, reportedly spoke about the India–US Comprehensive and Global Partnership. Modi responded with his usual phrasing committed to taking the partnership forward.
Such moments reinforce Modi’s dual image a politician deeply enmeshed in India’s rough-and-tumble politics, but also a global figure who commands personal attention abroad.
What The Day Really Meant
It’s worth pausing on how deliberately un-celebratory the day was. No grand rallies, no party function brimming with fanfare. Instead, health camps and welfare drives the kind of optics that signal humility and duty.
Of course, this is also politics at its most finely tuned. For a leader who has built his career on being both larger-than-life and utterly rooted, turning his birthday into a nationwide sewa campaign checks every box. It avoids the impression of indulgence while keeping the focus on his government’s priorities. It also keeps the BJP’s machinery humming, mobilizing lakhs of workers in one coordinated push.
Still, for all the service rhetoric, the personal milestone lingers in the background. Modi is now 75. That number carries weight in Indian politics. The day’s events may have been about public service, but the subtext was just as much about succession, endurance, and the road to 2029.
For now, though, Modi’s message is plain the work continues, the projects get built, and his age is not the story.
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- Ananya Sharmahttps://hindustanherald.in/author/ananya/
- Ananya Sharmahttps://hindustanherald.in/author/ananya/
- Ananya Sharmahttps://hindustanherald.in/author/ananya/
- Ananya Sharmahttps://hindustanherald.in/author/ananya/
Kavita Iyer