Narendra Modi
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| Narendra Modi MP | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 15th Prime Minister of India[1] | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 26 May 2014 | |
| President | Pranab Mukherjee |
| Preceded by | Manmohan Singh |
| 14th Chief Minister of Gujarat | |
| In office 7 October 2001 – 22 May 2014 | |
| Governor | Sunder Singh Bhandari Kailashpati Mishra Balram Jakhar Nawal Kishore Sharma S. C. Jamir Kamla Beniwal |
| Preceded by | Keshubhai Patel |
| Succeeded by | Anandiben Patel |
| Member of Parliament for Varanasi | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 16 May 2014 | |
| Preceded by | Murli Manohar Joshi |
| Member of Gujarat Legislative Assembly for Maninagar | |
| In office 2002 – 16 May 2014 | |
| Preceded by | Kamlesh Patel |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Narendra Damodardas Modi 17 September 1950 Vadnagar, India |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Political party | Bharatiya Janata Party |
| Spouse(s) | Jashodaben Chimanlal (Child marriage; estranged) |
| Residence | 7, Race Course Road |
| Alma mater | University of Delhi Gujarat University |
| Religion | Hinduism |
| Signature |  |
| Website | Official website Government website |
Narendra Damodardas Modi ([nəreːnd̪rə d̪ɑːmoːd̪ərəd̪ɑːsə moːd̪iː] (
), born 17 September 1950) is the 15th and the currentPrime Minister of India. Modi, a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), also served as Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014. He represents Varanasi as its Member of Parliament (MP)
), born 17 September 1950) is the 15th and the currentPrime Minister of India. Modi, a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), also served as Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014. He represents Varanasi as its Member of Parliament (MP)
Modi was a key strategist for the BJP in the successful 1995 and 1998 Gujarat state election campaigns. He became Chief Minister of Gujarat in October 2001 and served longer by far in that position than anyone else to date. He was a major campaign figure in the2009 general election, which the BJP led National Democratic Alliance lost to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA). He led the BJP in the April–May 2014 general election, which resulted in a majority for the BJP in the Lok Sabha, first time any party has done so since 1984.
Modi is a Hindu Nationalist and a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).[2][3] He is a controversial figure both within India as well as internationally[4][5][6][7] as his administration has been criticised for the incidents surrounding the 2002 Gujarat riots.[7][8] He has been praised for his economic policies, which are credited with creating an environment for a high rate of economic growth in Gujarat.[9] However, his administration has also been criticised for failing to make a significant positive impact upon the human development of the state.[10]
Contents
[hide]- 1 Early life and education
- 2 Early political career
- 3 Chief Minister of Gujarat
- 4 National government
- 5 Prime Minister
- 6 International diplomacy
- 7 Personality and image
- 8 Awards and recognitions
- 9 References
- 10 External links
Early life and education
Modi was born on 17 September 1950 to a family of grocers belonging to the backwardGhanchi-Teli (oil-presser) community, in Vadnagar in Mehsana district of erstwhileBombay State (present-day Gujarat), India.[11][12][13][14][15] He was the third of four children born to Damodardas Mulchand Modi and his wife, Heeraben.[16] He helped his father sell tea at Vadnagar railway station. As a child and as a teenager, he ran a tea stall with his brother near a bus terminus.[17][18] In 1967, he completed his schooling inVadnagar, where a teacher described him as being an average student, but a keen debater who had an interest in theatre.[17][19]
That interest has influenced how he now projects himself in politics.[20] At the age of eight, Modi came in contact with RSS and he began attending its local shakhas where he came in contact with Lakshmanrao Inamdar, popularly known as Vakil Saheb, who is known as his political guru and mentor. Inamdar inducted Modi as a balswayamsevak, a junior cadet in RSS. During his morning exercise session at the keri pitha shakha of RSS, he also came in contact with Vasant Gajendragadkar and Nathalal Jaghda, leaders of the Jan Sangh who later founded the BJP's Gujarat state unit in 1980.[21][22][23][24][25][26]
Modi's parents arranged his marriage as a child, in keeping with the traditions of the Ghanchi caste. He was engaged at the age of 13 to Jashodaben Chimanlal and the couple were married by the time he was 18. They spent very little time together and were soon estranged because Modi decided to pursue an itinerant life.[17][27] However as per Modi's biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, the marriage was never consummated.[28] Having remained silent on his marital status, during declarations related to candidature during four state elections since 2002 and having claimed that his status as a single person meant that he had no reason to be corrupt, Modi acknowledged Jashodaben as his legal spouse when filling in his nomination form for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.[29][30]
As per Modi in Kishore Makwana's Common Man Narendra Modi, published in 2014, after leaving home at 17, he went to Ramakrishna Mission ashram in Rajkot and then to theBelur Math near Kolkata. Then he went to Guwahati and later joined another ashram set up by Swami Vivekananda in Almora, in the Himalayan foothills. Two years after, he returned to Vadnagar and after a brief halt at his house, Modi left again for Ahmedabad, where he lived and worked in a tea stall run by his uncle where he again came in contact with Lakshmanrao Inamdar who was then based at Hedgewar Bhavan, the RSS headquarters in the city.[21][22][23] He then worked in the staff canteen of Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation until he became a full–time pracharak (propagandist) of the RSS in 1970.[25] In 1978, Modi graduated with an extramural degree through Distance Education in political science from Delhi University.[22][28] In 1983, while remaining as a pracharak in the RSS, completed his Master's degree in political science from Gujarat University.[19][31] He still continues to visit Belur Math occasionally[32][33] and talks about his reverence for the Ramakrishna Mission.[34]
Early political career
Modi formally joined the RSS after the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.[28] After Modi had received some RSS training in Nagpur, which was a prerequisite for taking up an official position in the Sangh Parivar, he was given charge of Sangh's student wing, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, in Gujarat. During 1975-1977, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhideclared a state of the emergency, political opponents were jailed and political organisation including RSS were banned. Modi went underground in Gujarat and to evade arrest was occasionally disguised as a Sikh, saint, elderly man etc. and printed and sent booklets against the central government to Delhi. He also organised agitations and covert distribution of Sangh's pamphlets.[17][28][35][36]
He also participated in the movement against the Emergency under Jayaprakash Narayan. He was made the general secretary of the Gujarat Lok Sangharsh Samiti and his primary role was to coordinate between activists in the state.[22][37] During this period he wrote a book titled Sangharsh ma Gujarat (Gujarat’s struggle) in Gujarati which chronicles events, anecdotes as well as his personal experiences.[36][38][39] The RSS assigned Modi to the BJP in 1985.[25] While Shankersinh Vaghela and Keshubhai Patel were the established names in the Gujarat BJP at that time, Modi rose to prominence after organising Murli Manohar Joshi's Kanyakumari-Srinagar Ekta yatra (Journey for Unity) in 1991.[17] In 1988, Modi was elected as organizing secretary of BJP's Gujarat unit,[40] marking his formal entry into mainstream politics.[28] As secretary, his electoral strategy was central to BJP's victory in the 1995 state elections.[25][41][42]
In November 1995, Modi was elected National Secretary of BJP and was transferred to New Delhi where he was assigned responsibility for the party's activities in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.[41][43] Vaghela defected from the BJP after he lost the 1996 Lok Sabha elections, having previously threatened to do so in 1995.[17] Modi was promoted to the post of General Secretary (Organisation) of the BJP in May 1998. While on the selection committee for the 1998 Assembly elections in Gujarat, Modi favoured supporters of Patel over those loyal to Vaghela, in an attempt to put an end to the factional divisions within the party. His strategies were credited as being key to winning the 1998 elections.[41]
Chief Minister of Gujarat
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In 2001, Keshubhai Patel's health was failing, and the BJP had lost seats in the by-elections. Allegations of abuse of power, corruption and poor administration were being made, and Patel's standing had been damaged by his administration's handling of the Bhuj Earthquake of 2001.[41][44][45] As a result, the BJP's national leadership sought a new candidate for the office of chief minister, and Modi, who had aired his misgivings about Patel's administration, was chosen as a replacement.[17] L. K. Advani, a senior leader of the BJP, did not want to ostracise Patel and was worried about Modi's lack of experience in governance. Modi declined an offer to be Patel's deputy chief minister, informing Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee that he was "going to be fully responsible for Gujarat or not at all", and on 7 October 2001, Modi was appointed the Chief Minister of Gujarat, with the responsibility of preparing the BJP for elections in December 2002.[citation needed] As Chief Minister, Modi's ideas of governance revolved around privatisation and small government, which stood at odds with what political commentator Aditi Phadnis has described as the "anti-privatisation, anti-globalisation position" of the RSS.[44]
First term (2001–2002)
2002 Gujarat riots
Main article: 2002 Gujarat riots
On 27 February 2002, a train with several hundred passengers including large numbers of Hindu pilgrims was burned near Godhra, killing around 60 people.[a] Following rumors that the fire was carried out by Muslim arsonists, anti-Muslim violence spread throughout Gujarat.[48] Estimates of the death toll ranged from 900 to over 2,000, while several thousand more people were injured.[49][50] The Modi government imposed a curfew in major cities, issued shoot-at-sight orders, and called for the army to prevent the violence from escalating.[51][52] However, human rights organizations, opposition parties, and sections of the media all accused Gujarat's government of taking insufficient action against the riots, and even condoning it in some cases.[51][52][53] Modi's decision to move the corpses of the Kar Sevaks who had been burned to death in Godhra to Ahmedabad had been criticised for inflaming the violence.[54][55]
In March 2008, the Supreme Court asked the state government to re-investigate nine cases in the 2002 Gujarat riots, including the Gulbarg Society incident, and constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the cases afresh.[53][56][57] Responding to a petition from Zakia Jafri, widow of Ehsan Jafri who was killed in the Gulbarg Society massacre, the Supreme court in April 2009 asked the SIT to probe her complaint alleging that Modi and another minister had been complicit in the killing.[56][58] The SIT questioned Modi in March 2010, and in May 2010 presented its report before the Court, stating that it found no evidence to substantiate the allegations.[56][59] In July 2011, theamicus curiae Raju Ramachandran submitted his final report to the Supreme Court, stating that Modi could be prosecuted based on the available evidence, contrary to the position of the SIT. Ramachandran's report was criticised by the SIT for relying on the testimony of Sanjiv Bhatt, who, it said, had fabricated the documents used as evidence.[60][61] The Supreme court handed the matter to the magistrate court, and left it to the SIT to examine Ramachandran's report. The SIT submitted its final report in March 2012, seeking closure of the case, against which Zakia Jaffri filed a protest petition. In December 2013, the magistrate court rejected the protest petition and accepted the clean chit given to Modi by SIT stating that there was no evidence against Modi in the case.[62]
Modi's involvement in the events of 2002 has continued to be debated. Several scholars have described the events of 2002 as a pogrom, while others have called it an instance ofstate terrorism.[63][64][65] Summarizing academic views on the subject, Martha Nussbaum stated that "There is by now a broad consensus that the Gujarat violence was a form of ethnic cleansing, that in many ways it was premeditated, and that it was carried out with the complicity of the state government and officers of the law."[66] In 2012, Maya Kodnani, a former minister in Modi's Government from 2007 – 2009, was convicted of having participated in the Naroda Patiya massacre during the 2002 riots.[67][68] She was both the first female and the first MLA to be convicted in a post-Godhra riots case.[69] While initially announcing that it would seek the death penalty for Kodnani, Modi's government eventually pardoned her in 2013 and settled for a prison sentence.[70][71][72]
A few months after the riots, New York Times reporter Celia Dugger asked Modi if he wished he handled the riots any differently. He told her his only regret was that he did not handle the news media better[73][74] and cited India's NDTV channel as being irresponsible in its reporting.[75]
2002 election
Main article: Gujarat legislative assembly election, 2002
In the aftermath of the violence, there were widespread calls for Modi to resign from his position as chief minister of Gujarat. These came from both within and outside the state, including from the leaders of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Telugu Desam Party, which were allies in then BJP-led NDA government at the centre. The opposition parties stalled the national parliament over the issue.[76][77] In April 2002, at the national executive meeting of BJP at Goa, Modi submitted his resignation; however, it was rejected by the party.[78] On 19 July 2002, Modi's cabinet had an emergency meeting and offered its resignation to the Governor of Gujarat, S. S. Bhandari, and the assembly was dissolved.[79][80] In the subsequent elections, the BJP, led by Modi, won 127 seats in the 182-member assembly.[81] Modi made significant use of anti-Muslim rhetoric during his election campaign, though he later denied it.[82][83][84][85]
Second term (2002–2007)
Despite allegations of using anti-Muslim rhetoric during the campaign, Modi's emphasis shifted during his second term from Hindutva to the economic development of Gujarat.[44][82] Modi's decisions curtailed the influence of organizations of the Sangh Parivar such as the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) and the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP),[86]which had become entrenched in Gujarat after the decline of Ahmedabad's textile industry.[44] Modi dropped Gordhan Zadafia, an ally of his former Sangh co–worker and VHP state chief Praveen Togadia, from the cabinet ministry. When the BKS launched a farmers' agitation, Modi ordered their eviction from houses provided by the state government. Modi's decision to demolish 200 illegal temples in Gandhinagar deepened the rift with VHP.[86][87] Various organisations of the Sangh were no longer consulted nor informed of Modi's administrative decisions prior to their enactment.[86]
The changes brought by Modi in the period 2002–2007 has led to Gujarat being called an attractive investment destination. Aditi Phadnis writes that "there was sufficient anecdotal evidence pointing to the fact that corruption had gone down significantly in the state... if there was to be any corruption, Modi had to know about it".[44] Modi started financial and technology parks in the state. During the 2007 Vibrant Gujarat summit, real estate investment deals worth 
6.6 trillion were signed in Gujarat.[44]
6.6 trillion were signed in Gujarat.[44]
Despite his focus on economic issues during the second term, Modi continued to be criticised for his relationship with Muslims. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, then Prime Minister of India, who had asked Modi not to discriminate between citizens in the aftermath of the 2002 Gujarat violence and had pushed for his resignation as Chief Minister of Gujarat,[88][89]distanced himself from Modi and reached out to North Indian Muslims before the 2004 elections to the Lok Sabha. After the elections, Vajpayee held that the violence in Gujarat had been one of the reasons for BJP's electoral defeat and acknowledged that not removing Modi immediately after the Gujarat violence was a mistake.[90][91]
2007 election
Further information: Gujarat legislative assembly election, 2007
In the run up to the assembly elections in 2007 and the general election in 2009, the BJP stepped up its rhetoric on terrorism.[92] On 18 July 2006, Modi criticised the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, "... for his reluctance to revive anti-terror legislations" such as the Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act. He asked the national government to allow states to invoke tougher laws in the wake of the 2006 blasts in Mumbai.[93] Around this time Modi frequently demanded the execution of Afzal Guru,[94] a collaborator of the Pakistani jihadists who had been convicted of terrorism for his involvement in the 2001 Indian Parliament attack.[95][b] As a consequence of the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, Modi held a meeting to discuss security of Gujarat's 1,600 km (990 mi) long coastline which resulted in the central government authorisation of 30 high–speed surveillance boats.[96]
In July 2007, Modi completed 2,063 consecutive days as chief minister of Gujarat, making him the longest-serving holder of that post.[97] The BJP won 122 of the 182 seats in the state assembly in the 2007 election, and Modi continued as chief minister.[98]
