It was a courtesy call, an official release said here.
Quoting Upadhyay, the Prime Minister stressed on the need
for an exceptionally strong military as a prerequisite for a strong nation and said the country must be a capable one which is a present-day requirement.
"He (Upadhyay) used to say that the country's armed forces should be very very capable, then only the nation can be strong," Modi said.
"In this time of competitiveness, the need is that the nation should be capable and strong," he said.
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Referring to Upadhyay, he said even Ram Manohar Lohia spoke about the Jana Sangh leader's efforts that led to the evolution of an alternative to Congress in 1967.
The Prime Minister said as a tribute to Upadhyay, who talked of integral humanism, his government was making the poorest of the poor the focus of schemes evolved by it.
"In a short span of time, one party completed the journey from 'vipaksh' to 'vikalp' and this was due to foundations laid by Deendayalji," he said, adding that simplicity was the hallmark of the former Jana Sangh leader.
Lauding the ideology of Upadhyay, Modi said he gave impetus to 'karyakarta nirman' (building party workers) and the workers inspired by him were party centric and the party nation centric.
"The poor is the central point of Panditji's entire thinking. He used to say that the poor should be the central point of every thing. That is why in this journey towards development, our government is focussing on the poor and to help empower it.
"This government is celebrating Panditji's centenary as 'gareeb kalyan varsh'. Because of that government decisions focus on the poor and poor-centric schemes and policies are evolved. I am confident that there will be no shortcoming in this journey," he said.
Deendayal Upadhyaya", said the former Jana Sangh chief's philosophy is an ideal for those in public life and warnings given by him many years ago are staring at the world today.
"The concept of maintaining a balance between development and nature that he put forth, is before us today in the form of global warming and air and water pollution. If the world would have moved forward on the path of integral humanism, then probably the world would not have faced the present-day problems," he said.
"Earlier it was considered that there is a contradiction between a welfare state and development. This BJP government has proved that despite being poor the country can be empowered.
Shah lauded Upadhyay as a successful politician who laid the foundation for an alternative to Congress when no option against it was available. He also highlighted his example of evolving alternative politics on basis of ideals, organisation and nationalism.
"He was the first to talk of cultural nationalism and that was his contribution to the country's polity. He had sown the seed of organisation-based political party's thought and BJP has today emerged as a big party and it was imperative upon all workers to follow the path shown by him," he said.
"India should be safe and secure. It's borders are posing a challenge and everyone has seen that this issue can be resolved too," he said.
"India has a lot to give to the world and that is being recognised now. India's strength is never destructive, but constructive. India's strength has never been used to spread boundaries and be expansionist. We go to win over the world but not defeat anyone...There is need that India should be a country that should lead the world," he also said.
The collection collated from varied sources contains writings, speeches, intellectual discourses and dialogues of Upadhyay, who pioneered the philosophy of integral humanism.
(REOPENS DEL36)
The event was attended by senior BJP leader L K Advani, Governors Ram Naik, O P Kohli and Jagdish Mukhi and Union ministers Radha Mohan Singh, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Jitendra Singh, Piyush Goel and Mahesh Sharma among others.
Senior RSS leaders Dattatreya Hosable, Krishna Gopal and O P Soni, besides BCCI chief and BJP MP Anurag Thakur, were also present.