Prime Minister Modi wrote a thoughtful poem in the news agency’s visitors book, reminding journalists that ethics and thoughts are their best weapons.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday visited the Delhi-based headquarters of Press Trust of India (PTI) and concluded his hour-long tour of the news agency’s newsroom with an eloquent poem he wrote in impeccable Hindi.

The Prime Minister wrote the thoughtful poem in the news agency’s visitors book and reminded journalists that ethics and thoughts are their best weapons.

The poem, written in Hindi in his inimitable handwriting, begins with the line “Aachaar, vichaar aur ab samachar” (ethics, thoughts and now news).

Here is a transliteration of Prime Minister Modi’s poem, originally written in Hindi:

Aachaar, vichaar aur ab samachar

Astitva ka, atmatatva ka

Aisa sangharsh hai

Jisame jeena bhee hai

Aur jeetana bhee hai

Uttam astra, shastra hai

Aachaar aur vichaar

A loosely translated version of the poem in English:

Ethics, thoughts and now news

It’s such a struggle

Of existence, of self

In which we must live

And we have to win too

The best weapons are

Ethics and thoughts

After writing the poem in the office of PTI’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Vijay Joshi, the Prime Minister half-jokingly said, “This verse is against you”.

When Joshi asked what he meant by that, Modi picked up the book and read it out to convey the gist that journalists should not lose sight of ethics and right thinking.

Modi spent an hour touring the PTI headquarters on his first visit to an organization’s newsroom since becoming prime minister in 2014. He expressed keen interest in the PTI’s recently launched video service, which has become ubiquitous in a short period of ten months.

PHOTO | During a conversation with CEO and Editor-in-Chief Vijay Joshi, PM @narendramodi also showed great interest in the teleprinter and the creed machine, which were once considered the cutting edge of news transmission technology.

Walking around the entire newsroom of the PTI… pic.twitter.com/Uf7HhvpIS5

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) December 9, 2023

The Prime Minister also showed keen interest in the teleprinter and the creed machine, which were once considered advanced technology in news transmission, the agency said in a post on X.

“The Prime Minister walked around the entire newsroom of the PTI headquarters in New Delhi and interacted with all news and non-news verticals of the main news agency,” PTI said.

(With PTI inputs)