Evaluation
Mr. Narendra Modi, started as Tea, Coffee Vendor in his early life and grown with his sincere efforts and his commitment to Society as front liner to CM and possible PM, a politician with developmental and technological skills and a great visionary, especially he walks the talk. Today's India needs a PM in his caliber and capability to make employment for youth and to make India Economically sound and poud.
Personality and image
Modi is a vegetarian. 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.
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".
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. 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 in 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. 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 rate of economic growth in Gujarat. However, his administration has also been criticized for failing to make a significant positive impact upon the human development of the state.
Early life and education
Modi seeking his mother's blessing on his birthday.
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. 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, 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
On 27 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. 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 a curfew in 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 justified.
In 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, it was alleged that the SIT was suppressing evidence.
2002 election
In the aftermath of the violence, there were calls for Modi to resign from his position as chief minister of Gujarat. The opposition parties stalled the national
parliament over the issue. Both the
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the
Telugu Desam Party (TDP), allies of the BJP, also asked for Modi's resignation, as did
Jayalalithaa, the then-
Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and leader of the
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). Modi submitted his resignation and the state Assembly was dissolved. In the subsequent elections the BJP, led by Modi, won 127 seats in the 182-member assembly. Modi used extreme anti-Muslim rhetoric during the campaign.
Second term (2002–2007)
During his second term, Modi's emphasis shifted from
Hindutva to the economic development of Gujarat. 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), which had become entrenched in Gujarat after the decline of Ahmedabad's textile industry. Modi dropped Gordhan Zadaphia, an ally of his former Sangh co–worker and VHP state chief
Praveen Togadia, from the cabinet ministry. When 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. Various organisations of the Sangh were no longer consulted or apprised of Modi's administrative decisions prior to enactment.
The changes brought by Modi in the period 2002–2007 has led to Gujarat being called an attractive investment destination. Aditi Phadnis, author of
Political Profiles of Cabals & Kings and columnist in the
Business Standard, 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". Modi instituted 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.
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, distanced himself from Modi and reached out to North Indian Muslims before the
2004 elections to the Lok Sabha. After the elections, Vajpayee held the violence in Gujarat as one of the reasons for BJP's electoral defeat and acknowledged that not removing Modi immediately after the Gujarat violence was a mistake.
Terrorism and elections in 2007–2008
In the lead up to assembly and general elections in 2007–2008, the BJP stepped up its rhetoric on terrorism. 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.
Around this time Modi frequently demanded the execution of
Afzal Guru, a collaborator of the Pakistani jihadists who had been convicted of terrorism for his involvement in the
2001 Indian Parliament attack.
Modi had completed 2,063 consecutive days as chief minister of Gujarat in July 2007, making him the longest-serving holder of that post. The BJP won the 2007 election, gaining 122 of the 182 seats in the state assembly, and Modi continued in office as chief minister.
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 authorising construction of 30 high–speed surveillance boats.
Third term (2007–2012)
Gujarat is a semi-arid state and, according to Tushaar Shah, was "... never known for agrarian dynamism" but in recent years has improved its agricultural output substantially, in large part due to projects relating to improvement of
groundwater supplies in
Saurashtra,
Kachchh and the north, as well as efforts to increase the use of
micro-irrigation and to provide more efficient power supply to farms. Public irrigation measures in the central and southern areas, such as the
Sardar Sarovar Project, have not been so successful in achieving their aims.
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 2010 and 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 them 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",
[71] 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.
[72] 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.
[68][73] 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.
[74][75] She is the first female and first MLA to be convicted in a post-Godhra riots case.
[76] 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.
[77][78][79]
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 was deemed an insult by the cleric. 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 public relations 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.
First Indian Politician to interact with Netizens
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.
Fourth term (2012–present)
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
Modi and other BJP leaders after the party's National Executive Meet. Modi was named the chairman of Central Election Campaign Committee during this meet.
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.
Uttarakhand floods controversy
On 23 June 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 14 July, 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
Modi addressing his first rally after being declared as the Prime Ministerial candidate of the NDA at
Rewari,
Haryana.
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. 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. 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 economist
Amartya 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
Ramdev and
Morari Bapu have supported Modi's Prime Ministerial candidacy.
International diplomacy
Modi speaking at the World Economic Forum's India Economic Summit 2008 in New Delhi.
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.
