Narendra Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi (Gujarati: [ˈnəɾendɾə dɑmodəɾˈdɑs ˈmodiː] ⓘ; born 17 September 1950)[b] is an Indian politician who has served as the 14th prime minister of India since May 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Varanasi. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right wing Hindu nationalist paramilitary volunteer organisation. He is the longest-serving prime minister from outside the Indian National Congress.
"Modi" redirects here. For other uses, see Modi (disambiguation).
Narendra Modi
.svg)
Modi was born and raised in Vadnagar in northeastern Gujarat, where he completed his secondary education. He was introduced to the RSS at the age of eight. His account of helping his father sell tea at the Vadnagar railway station has not been reliably corroborated. At age 18, he was married to Jashodaben Modi, whom he abandoned soon after, only publicly acknowledging her four decades later when legally required to do so. Modi became a full-time worker for the RSS in Gujarat in 1971. The RSS assigned him to the BJP in 1985 and he held several positions within the party hierarchy until 2001, rising to the rank of general secretary.[c]
In 2001, Modi was appointed Chief Minister of Gujarat and elected to the legislative assembly soon after. His administration is considered complicit in the 2002 Gujarat riots,[d] and has been criticised for its management of the crisis. A little over 1,000 people were killed, according to official records, three-quarters of whom were Muslim; independent sources estimated 2,000 deaths, mostly Muslim.[11] A Special Investigation Team appointed by the Supreme Court of India in 2012 found no evidence to initiate prosecution proceedings against him.[e] While his policies as chief minister, which were credited for encouraging economic growth, were praised, Modi's administration was criticised for failing to significantly improve health, poverty and education indices in the state.[f] In the 2014 Indian general election, Modi led the BJP to a parliamentary majority, the first for a party since 1984. His administration increased direct foreign investment, and it reduced spending on healthcare, education, and social-welfare programmes. Modi began a high-profile sanitation campaign, controversially initiated the 2016 demonetisation of high-denomination banknotes and introduced the Goods and Services Tax, and weakened or abolished environmental and labour laws.
Modi's administration launched the 2019 Balakot airstrike against an alleged terrorist training camp in Pakistan. The airstrike failed,[14][15] and the deaths of six Indian personnel to friendly fire was later revealed: but the action had nationalist appeal.[16] Modi's party won the 2019 general election which followed.[17] In its second term, his administration revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, an Indian-administered portion of the disputed Kashmir region,[18][19] and introduced the Citizenship Amendment Act, prompting widespread protests, and spurring the 2020 Delhi riots in which Muslims were brutalised and killed by Hindu mobs,[20][21][22] sometimes with the complicity of police forces controlled by the Modi administration.[23][24] Three controversial farm laws led to sit-ins by farmers across the country, eventually causing their formal repeal. Modi oversaw India's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, during which 4.7 million out of nearly 1.5 billion Indians died, according to the World Health Organization's estimates.[25][26]
Under Modi's tenure, India has experienced democratic backsliding, or the weakening of democratic institutions, individual rights, and freedom of expression.[27][28][g] As prime minister, he has received consistently high approval ratings.[34][35][36] Modi has been described as engineering a political realignment towards right-wing politics. He remains a controversial figure domestically and internationally, over his Hindu nationalist beliefs and handling of the Gujarat riots, which have been cited as evidence of a majoritarian and exclusionary social agenda.[h]
Early life and education
Narendra Damodardas Modi was born on 17 September 1950 to a Gujarati Hindu family of oil presser (Modh-Ghanchi) which is an Other Backward Class (OBC) category[43][44] in Vadnagar, Mehsana district, Bombay State (present-day Gujarat). He was the third of six children born to Damodardas Mulchand Modi (c. 1915–1989) and Hiraben Modi (1923–2022).[45][b][46]
Modi had infrequently worked as a child in his father's tea business on the Vadnagar railway station platform, according to Modi and his neighbors.[47][48][49] During a protest against the government, his brother, Prahlad Modi, contradicted that he ever sold tea. According to him, his father had brought up six of his children by selling tea and people were making a mistake by calling the Prime Minister a "chai wala" (tea seller).[50]
Modi completed his higher secondary education in Vadnagar in 1967; his teachers described him as an average student and a keen, gifted debater with an interest in theatre.[51] He preferred playing larger-than-life characters in theatrical productions, which has influenced his political image.[52][53]
When Modi was eight years old, he was introduced to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and began attending its local shakhas (training sessions). There, he met Lakshmanrao Inamdar, who inducted Modi as a balswayamsevak (junior cadet) in the RSS and became his political mentor.[54] While Modi was training with the RSS, he also met Vasant Gajendragadkar and Nathalal Jaghda, Bharatiya Jana Sangh leaders who in 1980 helped found the BJP's Gujarat unit.[55] As a teenager, he was enrolled in the National Cadet Corps.[56]
In a custom traditional to Narendra Modi's caste, his family arranged a betrothal to Jashodaben Chimanlal Modi, leading to their marriage when she was 17 and he was 18.[57][58] Soon afterwards, he abandoned his wife,[59] and left home. The couple never divorced but the marriage was not in his public pronouncements for many decades.[58] In April 2014, shortly before the national election in which he gained power, Modi publicly affirmed he was married and that his spouse was Jashodaben.[60] The marriage was unconsummated and Modi kept it secret because he would not have been able to become a pracharak in the puritanical RSS.[61][62]
Modi spent the following two years travelling across northern and north-eastern India.[63] In interviews, he has described visiting Hindu ashrams founded by Swami Vivekananda: the Belur Math near Kolkata, the Advaita Ashrama in Almora and the Ramakrishna Mission in Rajkot. His stays at each ashram were brief because he lacked the required college education.[64] Vivekananda has had a large influence in Modi's life.[65]
In mid 1968, Modi reached Belur Math but was turned away, after which he visited Calcutta, West Bengal and Assam, stopping in Siliguri and Guwahati. He then went to the Ramakrishna Ashram in Almora, where he was again rejected, before returning to Gujarat via Delhi and Rajasthan in 1968 to 1969. In either late 1969 or early 1970, he returned to Vadnagar for a brief visit before leaving again for Ahmedabad,[66][67] where he lived with his uncle and worked in his uncle's canteen at Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation.[68]
In Ahmedabad, Modi renewed his acquaintance with Inamdar, who was based at the Hedgewar Bhavan (RSS headquarters) in the city.[69][70][71] Modi's first-known political activity as an adult was in 1971 when he joined a Jana Sangh Satyagraha in Delhi led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee to enlist to fight in the Bangladesh Liberation War.[72][73] The Indira Gandhi-led central government prohibited open support for the Mukti Bahini; according to Modi, he was briefly held in Tihar Jail.[74][75][76] After the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, Modi left his uncle's employment and became a full-time pracharak (campaigner) for the RSS,[77] working under Inamdar.[78] Shortly before the war, Modi took part in a non-violent protest in New Delhi against the Indian government, for which he was arrested; because of this arrest, Inamdar decided to mentor Modi.[78] According to Modi, he was part of a Satyagraha that led to a political war.[75][i]
In 1978, Modi received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in political science from the School of Open Learning[81] at the Delhi University.[61][82] In 1983, he received a Master of Arts (MA) degree in political science from Gujarat University, graduating with a first class[83][84] as an external distance learning student.[85] There is a controversy surrounding the authenticity of his BA and MA degrees.[86][87][j]
Chief Minister of Gujarat (2001–2014)
Taking office
In 2001, Keshubhai Patel's health was failing and the BJP lost a few state assembly seats in by-elections. Allegations of abuse of power, corruption and poor administration were made, and Patel's standing had been damaged by his administration's handling of the earthquake in Bhuj in 2001.[109][111][112] The BJP national leadership sought a new candidate for the chief ministership, and Modi, who had expressed misgivings about Patel's administration, was chosen as a replacement.[51] Advani did not want to ostracise Patel and was concerned about Modi's lack of experience in government. Modi declined an offer to become Patel's deputy chief minister, telling Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee he was "going to be fully responsible for Gujarat or not at all". On 3 October 2001, Modi replaced Patel as Chief Minister of Gujarat with the responsibility of preparing the BJP for the upcoming December 2002 election.[113] On 7 October, Modi was sworn in[114] and he entered the Gujarat state legislature on 24 February 2002 after winning a by-election in Rajkot II constituency, defeating Ashwin Mehta of the INC.[115]
Writing career
In 2008, Modi published a Gujarati book titled Jyotipunj, which contains profiles of RSS leaders. The longest was of M. S. Golwalkar, under whose leadership the RSS expanded and whom Modi refers to as Pujniya Shri Guruji ("Guru worthy of worship").[518] According to The Economic Times, Modi's intention was to explain the workings of the RSS to his readers, and to reassure RSS members he remained ideologically aligned with them.
After becoming the Prime Minister he also authored a book called Exam Warriors, a guide for children to commendably face exams. Modi has written eight other books, mostly containing short stories for children.[519] 'Abundance in Millets,' a song that includes Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has received a nomination in the Best Global Music Performance category for the 2024 Grammy Awards.[520]
Private life
Modi used to maintain a close and publicised relationship with his mother, Hiraben.[521]
