Damodardas Mulchand Modi (Narendra Modi’s Father)

Some Lesser Known Facts About Damodardas Mulchand Modi

• Damodardas Mulchand Modi is the father of Narendra Modi, the 14th Prime Minister of India.

• Damodardas Mulchand Modi and his wife, Heeraben Modi, had six children together, five sons, and a daughter.

• Damodardas Mulchand Modi had a tea stall at the Vadnagar Railway Station, where his son Narendra Modi would often assist him in childhood.

  

• Damodardas Mulchand Modi would open his tea stall at Vadnagar Railway Station at 4 in the morning every day. Reportedly, before opening his tea stall, he used to pray at a nearby temple.

• On 26 March 1999, his son Somabhai Modi started an NGO, Sarvodaya Seva Trust.

• On 29 January 2001, on the occasion of Vasant Panchami, an old age home, Visamo Vruddhashram, was founded in his memory.

• On 16 February 2021, Visamo Vruddhashram completed its 20 years following which it was renamed Swargast Damordas Moolchand Modi Sewasharam, and his wife, Heeraben Modi, and son Somabhai Modi inaugurated the bust of Damodardas. In an interview, while talking about this, Somabhai said,
  

  It was a quiet and private function. My mother Hiraba inaugurated the bust. Along with members at our old age home and few close people from our town we had organised a small celebration.”

  

• According to Modi’s biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay’s book Narendra Modi: The Man, the Times, Modi left his village and broke away from his family in 1967. He came home for a few hours in 1989 when his father passed away. The book also says that Modi had just returned from his pilgrimage to Kailash Mansarovar when his father was on his deathbed. “I gave him sacred water from Mansarovar,” the book quotes Modi. It adds that in 1989, when Damodardas passed away, Modi was the General Secretary, Organisation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

• On 18 June 2022, on the occasion of Heeraben Modi‘s 99th birthday, Narendra Modi shared an emotional post on Twitter and wrote,
  

  This is going to be her birth centenary year. If my father had been alive, he too would have celebrated his 100th birthday last week. 2022 is a special year as my mother’s centenary year is starting, and my father would have completed his.”