Narendra Modi
Narendra Modi
14th Prime Minister of India
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 the Parliament of India (Lok Sabha)
for Varanasi
Incumbent
Assumed office
16 May 2014
Preceded by Murli Manohar Joshi
Majority 3,71,784 (36.07%)
Member of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly
for Maninagar
In office
1 January 2002 – 16 May 2014
Preceded by Kamlesh Patel
Succeeded by Suresh Patel
Personal details
Born Narendra Damodardas Modi
17 September 1950 (age 65)
Vadnagar, Bombay State (presently Gujarat), India
Nationality Indian
Political party Bharatiya Janata Party
Spouse(s) Jashodaben Narendrabhai (m. 1968) (estranged)
Residence 7, Race Course Road
Alma mater
University of Delhi
Gujarat University
Religion Hinduism
Signature
Website
Official website
Government website
PM Modi 2015.jpgThis article is part of a series about
Narendra Modi
Early life and education Public image
Early political career
Gujarat Legislative Assembly
2002 2007 2012
Prime Minister of India
BJP campaign for Indian general elections, 2014 Modi Aane Wala Hai Swearing-in ceremony Council of Ministers Timeline Mann Ki Baat
Global Contributions
Foreign policy Asian South Asian Middle Eastern Neighbourhood first Act East policy Trips abroad India–Pacific Islands Forum Yoga Day New Development Bank Solar alliance SAARC Satellite
National
Union Budgets 2014 2015 2016 Railway Budgets 2014 2015 2016 Antodaya Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Sukanya Samriddhi DELP Diamond Quadrilateral HRIDAY Housing for All Jeevan Pramaan Jan Dhan Yojana Mission Indradhanush Mudra Yojana Jeevan Jyoti Krishi Sinchai Suraksha Bima Atal Pension Yojana Adarsh Gram Yojana Gram Jyoti Soil health cards Ujjwala Projects Bharatmala Sagar Mala Setu Bharatam Campaigns Accessible India Digital India Make in India Swachh Bharat Skill India Startup India Unnat Bharat Abhiyan Missions AMRUT Smart cities TB-Mission 2020 Establishments NITI Aayog Statue of Unity War Memorial MUDRA Bank Laws Aadhaar Act Black Money Act Goods and Services Tax Bill National Waterways Act Real Estate Act Road Transport and Safety Bill Securities Laws Act
Works
Operation Raahat
Signature of Narendra Modi.svg
Prime Minister of India
v t e
Narendra Damodardas Modi (Gujarati: [nəreːnd̪rə d̪ɑːmoːd̪ərəd̪ɑːs moːd̪iː] ( listen), born 17 September 1950) is the 15th and current Prime Minister of India, in office since 26 May 2014.[1][2] Modi, a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from Varanasi. He led the BJP in the 2014 general election, which gave the party a majority in the Lok Sabha, for the first time since 1984.[3]
Since taking office as Prime Minister, Modi's administration has focused on reforming and modernising India's infrastructure and government,[4] reducing bureaucracy, encouraging increased foreign direct investment,[5] improving national standards of health and sanitation and improving foreign relations.[6][7][8] Earlier, as Chief Minister of Gujarat, Modi's economic policies have been praised,[9] although his administration has been criticised for failing to significantly improve the human development in the state and also failing to prevent the 2002 Gujarat riots too.[10][11][12] A Hindu nationalist and member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Modi[13][14] remains a controversial figure domestically and internationally
.jpg/220px-PM_Modi_Portrait(cropped).jpg)
Early life and education
Modi was born on 17 September 1950, to a family of grocers in Vadnagar, Mehsana district, Bombay State (present-day Gujarat).[19][20] He was the third of six children born to Damodardas Mulchand (1915–1989) and Heeraben Modi (b. c. 1920).[21][22][23] Modi's family belonged to the Modh-Ghanchi-Teli (oil-presser) community,[24][25][26] which is categorised as an Other Backward Class by the Indian government.[27][28][29]
As a child, Modi helped his father sell tea at the Vadnagar railway station, and later ran a tea stall with his brother near a bus terminus.[30][31] Modi completed his higher secondary education in Vadnagar in 1967, where a teacher described him as an average student and a keen debater, with an interest in theatre.[30] Modi had an early gift for rhetoric in debates, and this was noted by his teachers and students.[32] Modi preferred playing larger-than-life characters in theatrical productions, which has influenced his political image.[33][34]
Modi being fed by his mother
Modi with his mother, Heeraben, on his 63rd birthday on 17 September 2013.
At age eight, Modi discovered the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and began attending its local shakhas (training sessions). There, Modi met Lakshmanrao Inamdar, popularly known as Vakil Saheb, who inducted him as an RSS balswayamsevak (junior cadet) and became his political mentor.[35] While Modi was training with the RSS, he also met Vasant Gajendragadkar and Nathalal Jaghda, Bharatiya Jana Sangh leaders who were founding members of the BJP's Gujarat unit in 1980.[36][37][38][39]
Engaged while still a child to a local girl, Jashodaben Narendrabhai Modi, Modi rejected the arranged marriage at the same time he graduated from high school.[40] The resulting familial tensions contributed to his decision to leave home in 1967.[41]
Modi spent the ensuing two years travelling across Northern and North-eastern India, though few details of where he went have emerged.[42] In interviews, Modi has described visiting Hindu ashrams founded by Swami Vivekananda: the Belur Math near Kolkata, followed by the Advaita Ashrama in Almora and the Ramakrishna mission in Rajkot. Modi remained only a short time at each, since he lacked the required college education.[43][44][45]
Reaching the Belur Math in the early summer of 1968 and being turned away, Modi wandered through Calcutta, West Bengal and Assam, stopping by Siliguri and Guwahati.[46] Modi then went to the Ramakrishna ashram in Almora, where he was again rejected, before travelling back to Gujarat via Delhi and Rajasthan in 1968-69.[47] Sometime in late 1969 or early 1970, Modi returned to Vadnagar for a brief visit before leaving again for Ahmedabad.[48] There, Modi lived with his uncle, working in the latter's canteen at the Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation.[49][50]
In Ahmedabad, Modi renewed his acquaintance with Inamdar, who was based at Hedgewar Bhavan (RSS headquarters) in the city.[36][37][51] After the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, he stopped working for his uncle and became a full-time pracharak (campaigner) for the RSS.[50] In 1978, Modi became an RSS Sambhaag Pracharak (regional organiser), and received a degree in Political Science after a distance-education course from Delhi University.[52][53] Five years later, he received a Master of Arts degree in political science from Gujarat University in 1982.[54][55]
Early political career, 1975–2001
On 26 June 1975, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency in India which lasted until 1977. During this period, many of her political opponents were jailed and opposition groups (including the RSS) were banned.[56][57] As pracharak in-charge of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the RSS, Modi was forced to go underground in Gujarat and frequently traveled in disguise to avoid arrest. He became involved in printing pamphlets opposing the government, sending them to Delhi and organising demonstrations.[30][58][59][60] During this period, Modi wrote a book in Gujarati, Sangharsh ma Gujarat (The Struggles of Gujarat), describing events during the Emergency.[61][62]
He was assigned by the RSS to the BJP in 1985.[38] In 1988, Modi was elected organising secretary of the party's Gujarat unit, marking his entrance into electoral politics.[52][63] He rose within the party, helping organise L. K. Advani's 1990 Ayodhya Rath Yatra in 1990 and Murli Manohar Joshi's 1991–92 Ekta Yatra (Journey for Unity).[30][64] As party secretary, Modi's electoral strategy was considered central to BJP victory in the 1995 state assembly elections.[38][65][66] In November of that year Modi was elected BJP national secretary and transferred to New Delhi, where he assumed responsibility for party activities in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.[65][67] The following year, Shankersinh Vaghela (one of the most prominent BJP leaders in Gujarat) defected to the INC after losing his parliamentary seat in the Lok Sabha elections.[30] Modi, on the selection committee for the 1998 Assembly elections in Gujarat, favoured supporters of BJP leader Keshubhai Patel over those supporting Vaghela to end factional division in the party. His strategy was credited as key to the BJP winning an overall majority in the 1998 elections,[65][68] and Modi was promoted to BJP general secretary (organisation) in May of that year.[69]
Chief Minister of Gujarat (2001–14)
Modi flanked by three other men at a table
Chief Minister Modi and his cabinet ministers at a Planning Commission meeting in New Delhi, 2013.
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 made, and Patel's standing had been damaged by his administration's handling of the 2001 Bhuj earthquake.[65][70][71] The BJP national leadership sought a new candidate for chief minister, and Modi (who had expressed misgivings about Patel's administration) was chosen as a replacement.[30] Although senior BJP leader L. K. Advani did not want to ostracise Patel and was concerned about Modi's lack of experience in government, Modi declined an offer to be Patel's deputy chief minister and told Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee he was "going to be fully responsible for Gujarat or not at all". On 3 October 2001 he replaced Patel as Chief Minister of Gujarat, with the responsibility of preparing the BJP for the December 2002 elections.[72][73] As Chief Minister, Modi favoured privatisation and small government; this was at odds with political commentator Aditi Phadnis' description of the RSS as anti-privatisation and anti-globalisation.[70]
Narendra Modi
14th Prime Minister of India
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 the Parliament of India (Lok Sabha)
for Varanasi
Incumbent
Assumed office
16 May 2014
Preceded by Murli Manohar Joshi
Majority 3,71,784 (36.07%)
Member of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly
for Maninagar
In office
1 January 2002 – 16 May 2014
Preceded by Kamlesh Patel
Succeeded by Suresh Patel
Personal details
Born Narendra Damodardas Modi
17 September 1950 (age 65)
Vadnagar, Bombay State (presently Gujarat), India
Nationality Indian
Political party Bharatiya Janata Party
Spouse(s) Jashodaben Narendrabhai (m. 1968) (estranged)
Residence 7, Race Course Road
Alma mater
University of Delhi
Gujarat University
Religion Hinduism
Signature
Website
Official website
Government website
PM Modi 2015.jpgThis article is part of a series about
Narendra Modi
Early life and education Public image
Early political career
Gujarat Legislative Assembly
2002 2007 2012
Prime Minister of India
BJP campaign for Indian general elections, 2014 Modi Aane Wala Hai Swearing-in ceremony Council of Ministers Timeline Mann Ki Baat
Global Contributions
Foreign policy Asian South Asian Middle Eastern Neighbourhood first Act East policy Trips abroad India–Pacific Islands Forum Yoga Day New Development Bank Solar alliance SAARC Satellite
National
Union Budgets 2014 2015 2016 Railway Budgets 2014 2015 2016 Antodaya Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Sukanya Samriddhi DELP Diamond Quadrilateral HRIDAY Housing for All Jeevan Pramaan Jan Dhan Yojana Mission Indradhanush Mudra Yojana Jeevan Jyoti Krishi Sinchai Suraksha Bima Atal Pension Yojana Adarsh Gram Yojana Gram Jyoti Soil health cards Ujjwala Projects Bharatmala Sagar Mala Setu Bharatam Campaigns Accessible India Digital India Make in India Swachh Bharat Skill India Startup India Unnat Bharat Abhiyan Missions AMRUT Smart cities TB-Mission 2020 Establishments NITI Aayog Statue of Unity War Memorial MUDRA Bank Laws Aadhaar Act Black Money Act Goods and Services Tax Bill National Waterways Act Real Estate Act Road Transport and Safety Bill Securities Laws Act
Works
Operation Raahat
Signature of Narendra Modi.svg
Prime Minister of India
v t e
Narendra Damodardas Modi (Gujarati: [nəreːnd̪rə d̪ɑːmoːd̪ərəd̪ɑːs moːd̪iː] ( listen), born 17 September 1950) is the 15th and current Prime Minister of India, in office since 26 May 2014.[1][2] Modi, a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from Varanasi. He led the BJP in the 2014 general election, which gave the party a majority in the Lok Sabha, for the first time since 1984.[3]
Since taking office as Prime Minister, Modi's administration has focused on reforming and modernising India's infrastructure and government,[4] reducing bureaucracy, encouraging increased foreign direct investment,[5] improving national standards of health and sanitation and improving foreign relations.[6][7][8] Earlier, as Chief Minister of Gujarat, Modi's economic policies have been praised,[9] although his administration has been criticised for failing to significantly improve the human development in the state and also failing to prevent the 2002 Gujarat riots too.[10][11][12] A Hindu nationalist and member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Modi[13][14] remains a controversial figure domestically and internationally
Early life and education
Modi was born on 17 September 1950, to a family of grocers in Vadnagar, Mehsana district, Bombay State (present-day Gujarat).[19][20] He was the third of six children born to Damodardas Mulchand (1915–1989) and Heeraben Modi (b. c. 1920).[21][22][23] Modi's family belonged to the Modh-Ghanchi-Teli (oil-presser) community,[24][25][26] which is categorised as an Other Backward Class by the Indian government.[27][28][29]
As a child, Modi helped his father sell tea at the Vadnagar railway station, and later ran a tea stall with his brother near a bus terminus.[30][31] Modi completed his higher secondary education in Vadnagar in 1967, where a teacher described him as an average student and a keen debater, with an interest in theatre.[30] Modi had an early gift for rhetoric in debates, and this was noted by his teachers and students.[32] Modi preferred playing larger-than-life characters in theatrical productions, which has influenced his political image.[33][34]
Modi being fed by his mother
Modi with his mother, Heeraben, on his 63rd birthday on 17 September 2013.
At age eight, Modi discovered the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and began attending its local shakhas (training sessions). There, Modi met Lakshmanrao Inamdar, popularly known as Vakil Saheb, who inducted him as an RSS balswayamsevak (junior cadet) and became his political mentor.[35] While Modi was training with the RSS, he also met Vasant Gajendragadkar and Nathalal Jaghda, Bharatiya Jana Sangh leaders who were founding members of the BJP's Gujarat unit in 1980.[36][37][38][39]
Engaged while still a child to a local girl, Jashodaben Narendrabhai Modi, Modi rejected the arranged marriage at the same time he graduated from high school.[40] The resulting familial tensions contributed to his decision to leave home in 1967.[41]
Modi spent the ensuing two years travelling across Northern and North-eastern India, though few details of where he went have emerged.[42] In interviews, Modi has described visiting Hindu ashrams founded by Swami Vivekananda: the Belur Math near Kolkata, followed by the Advaita Ashrama in Almora and the Ramakrishna mission in Rajkot. Modi remained only a short time at each, since he lacked the required college education.[43][44][45]
Reaching the Belur Math in the early summer of 1968 and being turned away, Modi wandered through Calcutta, West Bengal and Assam, stopping by Siliguri and Guwahati.[46] Modi then went to the Ramakrishna ashram in Almora, where he was again rejected, before travelling back to Gujarat via Delhi and Rajasthan in 1968-69.[47] Sometime in late 1969 or early 1970, Modi returned to Vadnagar for a brief visit before leaving again for Ahmedabad.[48] There, Modi lived with his uncle, working in the latter's canteen at the Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation.[49][50]
In Ahmedabad, Modi renewed his acquaintance with Inamdar, who was based at Hedgewar Bhavan (RSS headquarters) in the city.[36][37][51] After the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, he stopped working for his uncle and became a full-time pracharak (campaigner) for the RSS.[50] In 1978, Modi became an RSS Sambhaag Pracharak (regional organiser), and received a degree in Political Science after a distance-education course from Delhi University.[52][53] Five years later, he received a Master of Arts degree in political science from Gujarat University in 1982.[54][55]
Early political career, 1975–2001
On 26 June 1975, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency in India which lasted until 1977. During this period, many of her political opponents were jailed and opposition groups (including the RSS) were banned.[56][57] As pracharak in-charge of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the RSS, Modi was forced to go underground in Gujarat and frequently traveled in disguise to avoid arrest. He became involved in printing pamphlets opposing the government, sending them to Delhi and organising demonstrations.[30][58][59][60] During this period, Modi wrote a book in Gujarati, Sangharsh ma Gujarat (The Struggles of Gujarat), describing events during the Emergency.[61][62]
He was assigned by the RSS to the BJP in 1985.[38] In 1988, Modi was elected organising secretary of the party's Gujarat unit, marking his entrance into electoral politics.[52][63] He rose within the party, helping organise L. K. Advani's 1990 Ayodhya Rath Yatra in 1990 and Murli Manohar Joshi's 1991–92 Ekta Yatra (Journey for Unity).[30][64] As party secretary, Modi's electoral strategy was considered central to BJP victory in the 1995 state assembly elections.[38][65][66] In November of that year Modi was elected BJP national secretary and transferred to New Delhi, where he assumed responsibility for party activities in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.[65][67] The following year, Shankersinh Vaghela (one of the most prominent BJP leaders in Gujarat) defected to the INC after losing his parliamentary seat in the Lok Sabha elections.[30] Modi, on the selection committee for the 1998 Assembly elections in Gujarat, favoured supporters of BJP leader Keshubhai Patel over those supporting Vaghela to end factional division in the party. His strategy was credited as key to the BJP winning an overall majority in the 1998 elections,[65][68] and Modi was promoted to BJP general secretary (organisation) in May of that year.[69]
Modi flanked by three other men at a table
Chief Minister Modi and his cabinet ministers at a Planning Commission meeting in New Delhi, 2013.
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 made, and Patel's standing had been damaged by his administration's handling of the 2001 Bhuj earthquake.[65][70][71] The BJP national leadership sought a new candidate for chief minister, and Modi (who had expressed misgivings about Patel's administration) was chosen as a replacement.[30] Although senior BJP leader L. K. Advani did not want to ostracise Patel and was concerned about Modi's lack of experience in government, Modi declined an offer to be Patel's deputy chief minister and told Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee he was "going to be fully responsible for Gujarat or not at all". On 3 October 2001 he replaced Patel as Chief Minister of Gujarat, with the responsibility of preparing the BJP for the December 2002 elections.[72][73] As Chief Minister, Modi favoured privatisation and small government; this was at odds with political commentator Aditi Phadnis' description of the RSS as anti-privatisation and anti-globalisation.[70]
