Narendra Damodardas Modi ( born 17 September 1950) is the 15th and current Prime Minister of India, in office since May 2014. Modi, a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), previously served as the Chief Minister of Gujarat state from 2001 to 2014. He is currently the Member of Parliament (MP) from Varanasi.
Modi led the BJP in the 2014 general election, which resulted in an outright majority for the BJP in the Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Indian parliament) – the last time that any party had secured an outright majority in the Lok Sabha was in 1984. Since then, Modi has also been credited for the BJP's electoral victories in the states of Haryana and Maharashtra in October 2014.
Modi is a Hindu Nationalist and a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He is a controversial figure both within India as well as internationally as his administration has been criticised for failing to act to prevent the 2002 Gujarat riots. Modi has been praised for his economic policies, which are credited with creating an environment for a high rate of economic growth in Gujarat. However, his administration has also been criticised for failing to make a significant positive impact upon the human development of the state.
Early political career
After Modi had received some RSS training in Nagpur, which was a prerequisite for taking up an official position in theSangh Parivar, he was given charge of Sangh's student wing, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, in Gujarat. In 1973, he participated in the Navnirman student agitation against the alleged "corrupt" Chimanbhai Patel led Congress government. During 1975–77, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared 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 the Sangh's pamphlets.
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 co-ordinate between activists in the state.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. The RSS assigned Modi to the BJP in 1985. While Shankersinh Vaghela and Keshubhai Patel were the established names in the Gujarat BJP at that time, Modi rose to prominence after organising BJP President Murli Manohar Joshi's Kanyakumari-Srinagar Ekta yatra (Journey for Unity) in 1991. In 1987, he was appointed as the first General Secretary of BJP in Gujarat and he was the force behind organising the Nyay Yatra(Journey for Justice) against the alleged repressive and corrupt Congress regime, marking his formal entry into mainstream politics. In 1988, Modi was elected as organising secretary of BJP's Gujarat unit. In 1989, he organised the Lok Shakti Yatra He along with Patel and Vaghela were considered to be the troika that put the BJP on Gujarat's political map.
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 North India in states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and the Union Territory of Chandigarh. 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. He was seen as a master strategist who knew the way out of every crisis.His strategies were credited as being key to winning the 1998 elections.
Chief Minister of Gujarat
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. 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.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 3 October 2001, Modi was named as the replacement of Patel as the Chief Minister of Gujarat, with the responsibility of preparing the BJP for elections in December 2002.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.
