Bengaluru: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday addressed the valedictory function of the second National Youth Parliament Festival via video conferencing.

The selected candidates in the youth parliaments held at state and district levels took part in the national event. The first three winners were given the opportunity to express their views before the Prime Minister.

Apart from PM Modi, Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank as well as Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla were also present in the meeting and shared their views.

National Youth Parliament Festival – NYPF is aimed at providing a platform to the youth of the country between 18 to 25 years of age. The first NYPF was organized from Jan 12 to Feb 27, 2019 on the lines of "Be the Voice of New India and Find solutions and Contribute to Policy." A total of 88,000 youth participated in the program.

Here are highlights from PM Modi’s speech:

Today is an important day as the National Youth Parliament Festival is being held at the Central Hall of the Parliament which witnessed the framing of our Constitution.

Time passed, the country became independent, but we still see today, Swamiji's influence is still the same.

What he said about spirituality, what he said about nationalism and nation-building, his thoughts about public service and jagseva flow in our mind-temple today with the same intensity

Swami Vivekananda has given another precious gift. It is a gift to build individuals, to build institutions. It is rarely discussed.

People come under the influence of Swamiji, build institutions, then people come out from those institutions who go on the path shown by Swamiji and keep adding new people. This cycle of Individual to Institutions and Individuals to Institutions is a great strength of India.

The new National Education Policy is a step towards nation-building. We are building an eco-system which will give better opportunities to our youth here.

Swami used to say that the youth of the country have to come forward and take responsibility for the development of the nation.

It is never 'nation first' for political dynasties; for them it is all about 'me and my family', said Modi.

Exhorting young people to join politics, PM Modi said the poison of dynastic politics will continue to weaken democracy unless they enter it.