Mr. Narendra Modi gave a clear definition of the Role of Government on the subject of Secularism during his speech at the Nava Bharath Yuva Bheri held in Hyderabad on 11th August 2013.

The Government had only one religion and it is to put the Nation’s Interests above everything else. The Government had only one religious book and it is the Indian Constitution. The Government had only one faith and it is National Interest. The Government had only one source to derive strength and it is people’s strength. The Government had only one ritual to perform and it is the welfare of 1.2 billion Indian Citizens. The Government had only one code of conduct and it is to ensure Development for All, Welfare for All.

With these words Mr. Modi clearly drew a distinction on the role of Government as proposed by the Constitution of India. He clearly indicated how the Government and Religion need to be separated to restore the faith of people in the Government.

Mr. Modi is not the only political leader to have done this. Presidents, Prime Ministers and political thinkers across the globe have endorsed this view since many many years.

“If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be one nation gone under.”
― Ronald Reagan

“Religious institutions that use government power in support of themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths, or of no faith, undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of an established religion tends to make the clergy unresponsive to their own people, and leads to corruption within religion itself. Erecting the ‘wall of separation between church and state,’ therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries.”
― James Madison

“When the government puts its imprimatur on a particular religion it conveys a message of exclusion to all those who do not adhere to the favored beliefs. A government cannot be premised on the belief that all persons are created equal when it asserts that God prefers some.”
― Harry A. Blackmun

All experts also define good government more or less in the similar way and we find all the points mentioned by these experts covered in the inspiring lines of Mr. Modi.

A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.
― Thomas Jefferson

All that a good government aims at… is to add no unnecessary and artificial aid to the force of its own unavoidable consequences, and to abstain from fortifying and accumulating social inequality as a means of increasing political inequalities.
― James F. Cooper

A good government implies two things; first, fidelity to the objects of the government; secondly, a knowledge of the means, by which those objects can be best attained.
― Joseph Story

The essence of good government is trust.
― Kathleen Sebelius