ABOUT NARENDRA MODI

Narendra Damodardas Modi   born 17 September 1950) is the 14th and current Chief Minister of Gujarat, a state in western India, representing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He is the prime ministerial candidate of the BJP and the centre-right National Democratic Alliance for the upcoming 2014 Indian general elections.

Modi was a key strategist for the BJP in the successful 1995 and 1998 Gujarat state election campaigns, as well as a major campaign figure in the 2009 general elections won by the Indian National Congress.^[1] He first became chief minister of Gujarat in October 2001, being promoted to the office upon the resignation of his predecessor, Keshubhai Patel, following the defeat of BJP in by-elections. In July 2007, he became the longest-serving Chief Minister in Gujarat's history when he had been in power for 2,063 days continuously. He is currently into his fourth consecutive term as Chief Minister.

Modi is a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and is described as a Hindu nationalist by media, scholars and himself. He is a controversial figure both within India and internationally. While his administration has been severely criticised for the incidents surrounding the 2002 Gujarat violence, he has been praised for his economic policies which are credited with creating the environment for the high economic growth in Gujarat. state.

Early life and education

Modi was born on 17 September 1950 to a family of grocers in Vadnagar in Mehsana district of what was then Bombay State (present-day Gujarat), India.^[13] He was the third of six children born to Damodardas Mulchand Modi and his wife, Heeraben. While a teenager, Modi ran a tea stall with his brother around a bus terminus He completed his schooling in Vadnagar, where a teacher described him as being an average student but a keen debater.

He began work in the staff canteen of Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC), where he stayed till he became a full–time pracharak (propagandist) of the RSS. 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 (ABVP), in Gujarat. Modi organised agitations and covert distribution of Sangh's pamphlets during the Emergency During his years in the RSS, Modi came in touch with Vasant Gajendragadkar and Nathalal Jaghda, leaders of the Jan Sangh, who later founded the BJP's Gujarat state unit. Modi remained a pracharak in the RSS while he completed his Master's degree in political science from Gujarat University.

Early political career

The RSS seconded Modi to the BJP in 1987. While Shankarsingh 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 Ekta yatra (journey for unity). His electoral strategy was central to BJP's victory in the 1995 state elections. Modi became the General Secretary of the BJP and was transferred to New Delhi where he was assigned responsibility for the party's activities in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Vaghela, who had threatened to break away from BJP in 1995, defected from the BJP after he lost the 1996 Lok Sabha elections. In 1998, Modi was promoted to the post of National Secretary of the BJP. While selecting candidates for the 1998 state elections in Gujarat, Modi sidelined people who were loyal to Vaghela and rewarded those who favoured Patel, thus ending factional divisions within the party. His strategies were key to winning those elections.

Chief Minister of Gujarat

First Term (2001-2002)

Patel's failing health, allegations of abuse of power, corruption and poor administration, as well as a loss of BJP seats in by-elections, prompted the BJP's national leadership to seek a new candidate for the office of chief minister. Patel's position was also damaged by the devastating Bhuj Earthquake of 2001, the effects of which his administration struggled to handle. Modi, who had aired his misgivings about Patel's administration, was chosen as a replacement. L. K. Advani, a senior leader of the BJP, however, did not want to ostracise Patel and was worried about Modi's lack of experience in governance. It was suggested that Modi should be made the deputy chief minister in a government led by Patel, upon which Modi informed Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee that he was "going to be fully responsible for Gujarat or not at all" and declined the proposal. On 7 October 2001, Modi was appointed the Chief Minister of Gujarat and was assigned the responsibility to prepare 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 Aditi Phadnis has described as the "anti–privatisation, anti–globalisation position" of the RSS.

2002 Gujarat violence

Main article: 2002 Gujarat violence

On the 27th of February 2002, a train with several hundred passengers including large numbers of Hindu pilgrims was burned near Godhra, killing 58 people. Following rumors that the arson had been carried out by a Muslim mob, there was widespread Anti-Muslim violence throughout Gujarat. Estimates of the death toll range from 900 to over 2000; several thousand more were injured.^[24][25] The Gujarat administration was accused by human rights organizations, the opposition, and sections of the media of taking insufficient action against the violence, and condoning it in some cases. The Modi government imposed curfew across major cities, issued shoot-at-sight orders and called for the army to prevent the violence from escalating. In April 2009, the Supreme Court of India appointed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to inquire into the Gujarat government and Narendra Modi's role in the incidents of communal violence. The SIT reported to the court in December 2010 submitting that they did not find any incriminating evidence against Modi of willfully allowing communal violence in the state. Modi's decision to move the corpses of the kar sevaks who had been burned to death in Godhra to Ahmedabad has also been criticized for inflaming the violence. However, the SIT found his decision to be justifiedIn April 2012, the SIT absolved Modi of any involvement in the Gulbarg Society massacre, one of the many riots that occurred in 2002. On 7 May 2012, the Supreme Court-appointed amicus curiae, Raju Ramachandran, observed that Modi could be prosecuted for promoting enmity among different groups during the 2002 Gujarat violence. His main contention was that the evidence should be examined by a court of law because the SIT was required to investigate but not to judge. The amicus report has been criticised by the Special Investigation Team for relying heavily on the testimony of Sanjiv Bhatt. In July 2013, Zakia Jaffri, widow of Ehsan Jafri, alleged that the SIT was suppressing evidence.

In July 2013, in an interview to the newswire Reuters, Modi defended himself against the accusations over the 2002 riots and said his government used its full strength and he has no guilty feeling. He said he was sad about the riots, adding he would be sad even if a "puppy" came under a car. Modi said

... any person if we are driving a car, we are a driver, and someone else is driving a car and we're sitting behind, even then if a puppy comes under the wheel, will it be painful or not? Of course, it is. If I'm a Chief Minister or not, I'm a human being. If something bad happens anywhere, it is natural to be sad.

This "puppy" comment caused a political uproar in India with many parties like the Samajwadi Party, the CPM, the CPI and the JD(U) saying that he had compared Muslims to a 'puppy' and should apologise for the "humiliating" remarks. BJP and Modi defended the remark; with Modi tweeting "In our culture every form of life is valued & worshipped ... People are best judge".

Development projects

Successive BJP governments under Patel and Modi supported NGOs and communities in the creation of infrastructure projects for conservation of groundwater. By December 2008, 500,000 structures had been constructed, of which 113,738 were check dams. While most check dams remained empty during the pre-monsoon season, they helped recharge the aquifers that lie beneath them. 60 of the 112 Tehsils which were found to have over–exploited the groundwater table in 2004 had regained their normal groundwater level by 2010and Gujarat had managed to increase its groundwater levels at a time when they were falling in all other Indian states. As a result, production of genetically-modified Bt cotton, which could now be irrigated using tube wells, increased to become the largest in India. The boom in cotton production and utilization of semi–arid land saw the agriculture growth rate of Gujarat increase to 9.6% in the period 2001–2007. For the decade 2001–2010, Gujarat recorded a Compound annual growth rate of 10.97%, the highest among all Indian states.

The system of supplying power to rural areas has been changed radically and has had a greater impact on agriculture than the irrigation works. While states such as Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu provided free electricity to farms, and most other states provided subsidised power, the Gujarat government between 2003–2006 reacted to concerns that such measures result in waste of the power supplied and of groundwater itself with the Jyotigram Yojana scheme, based on ideas developed by the International Water Management Institute. Agricultural supplies were rewired to separate then from other rural supplies and then the electricity used by farms was rationed to fit with scheduled demand for irrigation and consequently to reduce the amount of subsidy being paid. The farmers objected to this at first but came to realise that the outcome was that they were receiving a supply that suffered less from interruption, was of a more consistent voltage and was available when they most needed it for irrigation purposes. Other states have since begun to adopt similar, although not identical, strategies.

Debate on Gujarat "miracle"

Modi's government has worked to brand Gujarat as a state of dynamic development and economic growth and prosperity, using the slogan "Vibrant Gujarat". However critics point out that Gujarat has a relatively poor record when it comes to human development, poverty alleviation, nutrition and education. The state is 13th in India for poverty, 21st for education and 44.7% percent of children under five are underweight and 23% are undernourished putting the state in the "alarming" category on the Hunger Index. However, officials from the state of Gujarat claim that Gujarat outperformed India as a whole in the rates of improvement of multiple human indicators such as female education, between 2001 and 2011. Furthermore, they state that dropout rates declined from 20% in 2001 to 2% in 2011, and Maternal Mortality declined by 32% from 2001 to 2011.

Political scientist Christophe Jaffrelot points out that the development in Gujarat has been limited to the urban middle class, whereas rural dwellers and lower castes have become increasingly marginalised. This is evidenced by the fact that despite the high economic growth, Gujarat is only 21st in Human development index, because rural Gujaratis continue to lag behind. He claims under Modi the number of families living below the poverty line has increased, and that particularly rural adivasi and dalits have become increasingly marginalised. In July 2013, Economics Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen criticised Narendra Modi's governance record and said he did not approve of it, under his administration, Gujarat's "record in education and healthcare is pretty bad". However, economists Arvind Panagariya and Jagdish Bhagwati note that Gujarat's social indicator improved from a much lower baseline than other Indian states. They point to Gujarat's superior performance in raising literacy rates when compared to other states in India and the rapid improvement of health indicators in Gujarat as evidence that "its progress has not been poor by any means."

Cabinet issues

In 2010 Modi made a speech at Mangrol in which he justified the extrajudicial killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, during the election campaign in response to Sonia Gandhi's speech calling him a "merchant of death", and referred to Sohrabuddin's killing. For this speech the Election Commission of India, a constitutional body governing election proceedings in India, cautioned Modi as it considered it as indulging in an activity which may aggravate existing differences between different communities. In 2010 Amit Shah, Modi's close confidant and Home minister in his government was indicted for having ordered the killing of Sohrabuddin and two others, after spending three months in jail he was released on bail, and subsequently reelected in one of Ahmedadbad's constituencies. In 2012 Maya Kodnani another of Modi's former minister's from 2007 - 2009 was convicted of having participated in the Naroda Patiya massacre during the 2002 violence. She is the first female and first MLA to be convicted in a post-Godhra riots case. While first announcing that it would seek the death penalty for Kodnani, Modi's government eventually pardoned her in 2013 and settled for a prison sentence.

Sadbhavana Mission and Fasts

During late 2011 and early 2012, Modi undertook a series of fasts as part of a Sadbhavna Mission (Goodwill Mission), meant to reach out to the Muslim community in Gujarat. Modi announced that he believed that his fast would "further strengthen Gujarat’s environment of peace, unity and harmony."

The mission started on 17 September 2011 in Ahmedabad with a three-day fast aimed at strengthening the atmosphere of peace, unity, and harmony in the state. He observed 36 fasts in 26 districts and 8 cities. Some Muslims were unimpressed with his fasts, and one incident in which Modi refused to wear a skull cap offered to him by a Muslim cleric attracted widespread criticism in the media. When he was fasting in Godhra, the site of the train burning that sparked the 2002 riots; a number of activists were detained for allegedly planning rallies against Modi. Others criticized his fast as a PR mission. Modi himself denied that the mission was about wooing "any particular community or religion".

Legislation and appointments

In 2011, the Gujarat state organisation of Congress banned the Gujarati-language TV 9 television channel from covering its events and prohibited access to its press conferences.  Modi criticised this decision, saying that Journalists on Twitter who spoke against Congress, were blocked. Here they banned a TV channel. Their crime is that they exposed cracks in the ghar nu ghar (own your home) scheme of the Congress. Yet this party talks about democracy.

On 25 August 2011, the Governor of Gujarat, Kamla Beniwal, appointed Justice R. A. Mehta to the post of Lokayukta of Gujarat, a critical anti–corruption post that had been lying vacant since 2003. Mehta was recommended for the post by the Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court in June 2011. Beniwal made this decision without consultation with and approval from Modi and his council of ministers. This marked the beginning of a strained relationship between Modi and Beniwal. On 25 September 2011, Modi accused the Governor of running a parallel government in the state supported by the Indian National Congress party and demanded that she be recalled.

The appointment of Mehta was challenged in the High Court by the Gujarat government. The two-member high court bench gave a split verdict on 10 October 2011. In January 2012, a third member upheld Beniwal's decision.Modi has also accused Beniwal of delaying a bill for reservation of 50% of seats in local government for women.

Modi interacted with netizens on Google+ on 31 August 2012. The chat session was also broadcast live on YouTube. The questions were submitted before the chat, and those broadcast were mostly based on issues about education, youth empowerment, rural development and causes of urbanisation. The hashtag #ModiHangout became the most trending term in India at Twitter on the day of the session, whereas #VoteOutModi, used by Modi's opponents, became the third most trending term in the country. The event made Modi the first Indian politician to interact with netizens through live chat on the internet.

2012

Further information: Gujarat legislative assembly election, 2012

In the 2012 Gujarat legislative assembly elections, Modi won from the constituency of Maninagar with a majority of 86,373 votes over Sanjiv Bhatt's wife, Shweta, who was contesting for the Indian National Congress. The BJP as a whole won 115 of the 182 seats; it has formed the government in Gujarat since 1995 and has had an absolute majority throughout Modi's time in office.

Later in the by-elections for six seats, the BJP won all the seats in Gujarat which consisted of four assembly seats and 2 Lok Sabha seats. Interestingly, BJP won all these seats although Modi never campaigned for its candidates and all the seats were held by the Congress prior to the by-elections. This brought up the number of seats held by the BJP in the state assembly to 119.

Role in central politics

In March 2013, Modi was appointed as member of the BJP Parliamentary Board, its highest decision-making body, and also as a Chairman of the party's Central Election Campaign Committee. Modi was selected to head the poll campaign for 2014 parliamentary election, at the national level executive meeting of BJP on 10 June 2012. The party's senior leader and founding member L.K. Advani resigned from all his posts at the party following the selection, protesting against leaders who were "concerned with their personal agendas"; the resignation was described by The Times of India as "a protest against Narendra Modi's elevation as the chairman of the party's election committee".However, Advani withdrew his resignation the next day at the urging of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat.

In September 2013, BJP announced Modi as prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Uttarakhand floods controversy

On June 23, 2013, The Times of India published a report titled Modi in Rambo act, saves 15,000. The report stated that Modi had commissioned Boeings, SUVs, and luxury buses to rescue 15,000 Gujarati victims of the 2013 Uttarakhand floods. The actions as reported by Times of India were widely disbelieved because of the enormity of the task. A controversy followed with allegations that Modi was attempting to create a "Rambo" image in the minds of the Indian public. Modi was criticised for giving preferential treatment to Gujaratis, and for visiting the area even though the government in Uttarakhand had discouraged such visits to prevent diversion of attention and resources from rescue efforts. BJP representatives denied that Modi himself had ever stated that he had intervened in the rescue operation, and conceded that perhaps BJP workers had contributed to the impression of Modi's personal involvement. On July 14, Times of India published a clarification saying that Modi's government had assisted 15,000 flood victims of several states, and not rescued 15,000 Gujaratis as earlier reported. The clarification said that there was no exaggeration of facts or attempts to mislead by the BJP spokesperson, and added that The Times of India was mortified by the controversy surrounding the report. After the publication of the clarification, The Times of India report was called a hoax. Media outlets were criticised by the BJP for publishing editorials critical of Modi without checking facts.

Possible prime minister

In three opinion polls conducted by news agencies and magazines, Narendra Modi was declared the preferred choice for the post as Prime Minister in the forthcoming parliamentary elections. A C-Voter poll suggested that by projecting Modi as the Prime Minister candidate, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) could gain a five percent increase in the vote share; it said that projecting Modi could increase NDA's seats from 179 to 220, which is 52 short of majority. Commenting on the polls, Political scientist Ashutosh Varshney argued that a BJP Prime Minister was unlikely unless they were able to form broad coalitions with other parties, which so far they have not been able to do. In an interview, Nobel Prize laureate economistAmartya Sen, said that he did not want Modi as a Prime Minister because he had not done enough to make minorities feel safe, and also noted that under Modi, Gujarat's record in health and education provision has been "pretty bad".However, economists Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya stated "We are impressed by Modi's economics."  Spiritual leaders like Ramdevand Morari Bapu have supported Modi's Prime Ministerial candidacy.

International diplomacy

to attract foreign investment in Gujarat during his time as chief minister, Modi has made visits to countries such as China, Singapore and Japan.

Modi visited China in November 2006 to study the Special Economic Zones that were planned to start in Gujarat. He also visited in September 2007 and later in November 2011. A month after his visit of 2011, the Chinese Government released 13 diamond traders from India who had been jailed by the Shenzhen Customs, which Modi described as being the consequence of his diplomatic efforts and statesmanship.

In 2005, Modi was denied a diplomatic visa to the United States. In addition, the B-1/B-2 visa that had previously been granted to him was also revoked, under a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act which makes any foreign government official who was responsible or "directly carried out, at any time, particularly severe violations of religious freedom" ineligible for the visa.

In 2011, the Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry, impressed with the development of Gujarat, invited Modi to visit Pakistan and address prominent business leaders. They also asked him to consider a flight between Karachi and Ahmedabad, due to the historical cultural and economic relations between the two regions of Gujarat and Sindh. Modi wishes to help Pakistan out of its power crisis, especially in Sindh, suggesting Pakistan can follow the 'Gujarat Model' in two ways — Gujarat Solar Park and Kalpasar Project.

The United Kingdom refused to deal with Modi for a decade following the 2002 violence but lifted its diplomatic boycott in October 2012. Later, in March 2013, the European Union, of which the UK is a member, also ended its boycott, saying that talking with Modi was a separate issue from that of protecting human rights and those of women.

In July 2013, BJP president Rajnath Singh visited the US and gave a speech urging that Modi should be given a visa to visit the country. In response to Singh's visit, 65 Members of the Indian parliament allegedly signed a letter to US President Barack Obama requesting that the policy of denying Modi a visa be upheld. However, the veracity of some of the signatures has been called into question, with Sitaram Yechury among a number of purported signatories denying that they ever signed such a petition

Personality and image

 He is known for leading a frugal lifestyle and has a personal staff of three. He is known to be a workaholic and an introvert. He also writes poems in Gujarati. He is a crowd-puller as a speaker. He wears "business suits to business meetings, instead of homespun tunics. He still lampoons the urban, English-speaking elite, but he is also honing his English skills."

Modi has been labelled by the media and some articles in peer reviewed journals as a controversial, polarising, and divisive figure.

In September 2013, Nielsen and The Economic Times published results of a poll of 100 Indian corporate leaders - 74 of them wanted Modi to be the next prime-minister, compared to 7 whose preference was Rahul Gandhi. British economist Jim O'Neill, author of the BRIC report, wrote on his blog that Modi is "good on economics", one of the things that "India desperately needs in a leader". In August 2013, financial analyst Chris Wood, chief strategist of CLSA, wrote in his weekly Greed & Fear that "the Indian stock market's greatest hope is the emergence of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the BJP's prime ministerial candidate".

Awards and recognitions

·         Gujarat Ratna by Shri Poona Gujarati Bandhu Samaj at Ganesh Kala Krida Manch on celebration of centenary year.

·         e-Ratna award by the Computer Society of India

·         Best Chief Minister – In a nationwide survey conducted in 2006 by India Today magazine, Narendra Modi was declared the Best Chief Minister in the country.

·         Asian Winner of the fDi Personality of the Year Award for 2009 by FDi magazine.

·         In March 2012, Modi appeared on the cover of the Asian edition of the Time magazine, one of India's few politicians to have done so. He is described as controversial, ambitious and shrewd politician. A firm, "no-nonsense leader" who can steer India out of a "mire of chronic corruption and inefficiency