Narendra Modi

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Narendra Modi Full Name: Narendra Damodardas Modi Alias: Indian Trump Modi Origin: Vadnagar, Bombay State, India Occupation: Prime Minister of India (2014 - present) Skills: Control over the media Strategist Manipulation Charisma Lies Hobby: Debating (in early life) Goals: Expand Hindu influence in India Convert India into dictatorship Crimes: Torture Human rights violations Corruption Persecution of Christians Islamophobia Abuse of power Incitement of insurrection COVID denialism Racism Xenophobia Arabophobia Anti-Semitism Type of Villain: Xenophobic Tyrant

“	The nation cannot be ruled by an academician, it can be run only by a leader. Only those who know the pulse of the nation can run it.	„
	~ Narendra Modi

Narendra Modi (born September 17, 1950) is an Indian politician who is the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. He also served as the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament for Varanasi. Modi is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu nationalist volunteer organization. He was implicated in the 2002 Gujarati riots which killed 1,044 people, the majority of whom were Muslims. Since being elected, he has promoted Hindutva, Hindu nationalism. . His government has been accused of denying Muslims rights, such as demoting Jammu and Kashmir from a state into a union territory, building concentration camps in Assam, as well as passing the Citizenship Amendment Act which excluded Muslims from citizenship.

Biography

Modi was born in Vadnagar, Gujarat to a family of grocers. His family belonged to the Modh-Ghanchi-Teli oil pressing community, classified under the Indian government as the Other Backward Class. As a child, he would help his father sell tea by the railway station, opening up a tea stall with his brother by a bus terminal.

When he was 8, he discovered the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and attended shakhas (training sessions) where he met Lakshmanrao Inamdar, whom he would consider a mentor. Modi was described as a keen debater in school, having an interest in theatre. He would often portray larger-than-life characters, which would further shape his image politically. He completed an M.A. degree in political science from Gujarat University in Ahmadabad.

Around 1968, he reached the Belur Math, headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission in Belur, West Bengal, but was turned away, deciding to travel to northeast India. joined the pro-Hindu Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) organization in the early 1970s and set up a unit of the RSS’s students’ wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, in his area. Modi rose steadily in the RSS hierarchy, and his association with the organization significantly benefited his subsequent political career.

Modi joined the BJP in 1987, and a year later he was made the general secretary of the Gujarat branch of the party. He was instrumental in greatly strengthening the party’s presence in the state in succeeding years.

In 1990 Modi was one of the BJP members who participated in a coalition government in the state, and he helped the BJP achieve success in the 1995 state legislative assembly elections that in March allowed the party to form the first-ever BJP-controlled government in India. The BJP’s control of the state government was relatively short-lived, however, ending in September 1996.

In 1995 Modi was made the secretary of the BJP’s national organization in New Delhi, and three years later he was appointed its general secretary. He remained in that office for another three years, but in October 2001 he replaced the incumbent Gujarat chief minister, fellow BJP member Keshubhai Patel after Patel had been held responsible for the state government’s poor response in the aftermath of the massive Bhuj earthquake in Gujarat earlier that year that killed more than 20,000 people. Modi entered his first-ever electoral contest in a February 2002 by-election that won him a seat in the Gujarat state assembly.

Modi’s political career thereafter remained a mixture of deep controversy and self-promoted achievements. His role as chief minister during communal riots that engulfed Gujarat in 2002 was particularly questioned. He was accused of condoning the violence or, at least, of doing little to stop the killing of more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, that ensued after dozens of Hindu passengers died when their train was set on fire in the city of Godhra.

In 2005 the United States declined to issue him a diplomatic visa on the grounds that he was responsible for the 2002 riots, and the United Kingdom also criticized his role in 2002. Although in the succeeding years Modi himself escaped any indictment or censure—either by the judiciary or by investigative agencies—some of his close associates were found guilty of complicity in the 2002 events and received lengthy jail sentences. Modi’s administration was also accused of involvement in extrajudicial killings (variously termed “encounters” or “fake encounters”) by police or other authorities. One such case, in 2004, involved the deaths of a woman and three men whom officials said were members of Lashkar-e-Taiba (a Pakistan-based terrorist organization that was involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks) and were alleged to have been plotting to assassinate Modi.

Modi’s repeated political success in Gujarat, however, made him an indispensable leader within the BJP hierarchy and led to his reintegration into the political mainstream. Under his leadership, the BJP secured a significant victory in the December 2002 legislative assembly elections, winning 127 of the 182 seats in the chamber (including a seat for Modi). Projecting a manifesto for growth and development in Gujarat, the BJP was again victorious in the 2007 state assembly elections, with a seat total of 117, and the party prevailed again in the 2012 polls, garnering 115 seats. Both times Modi won his contests and returned as chief minister.

During his time as head of the Gujarat government, Modi established a formidable reputation as an able administrator, and he was given credit for the rapid growth of the state’s economy. In addition, his and the party’s electoral performances helped advance Modi’s position as not only the most-influential leader within the party but also a potential candidate for prime minister of India. In June 2013 Modi was chosen the leader of the BJP’s campaign for the 2014 elections to the Lok Sabha.

After a vigorous campaign—in which Modi portrayed himself as a pragmatic candidate who could turn around India’s underperforming economy—he and the party were victorious, with the BJP winning a clear majority of seats in the chamber. Modi was sworn in as prime minister on May 26, 2014.

Soon after he took office, his government embarked on several reforms, including campaigns to improve India’s transportation infrastructure and to liberalize rules on direct foreign investment in the country. Modi scored two significant diplomatic achievements early in his term.

In mid-September, he hosted a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping, the first time a Chinese leader had been to India in eight years. At the end of that month, having been granted a U.S. visa, Modi made a highly successful visit to New York City, which included a meeting with U.S. Pres. Barack Obama.

As prime minister, Modi oversaw a promotion of Hindu culture and the implementation of economic reforms. The government undertook measures that would broadly appeal to Hindus, such as its attempt to ban the sale of cows for slaughter. The economic reforms were sweeping, introducing structural changes—and temporary disruptions—that could be felt nationwide.

Among the most far-reaching was the demonetization and replacement of 500- and 1,000-rupee banknotes with only a few hours’ notice. The purpose was to stop “black money”—cash used for illicit activities—by making it difficult to exchange large sums of cash. The following year the government centralized the consumption tax system by introducing the Goods and Services Tax (GST), which superseded a confusing system of local consumption taxes and eliminated the problem of cascading tax. GDP growth slowed from these changes, though growth had already been high (8.2 percent in 2015), and the reforms succeeded in expanding the government’s tax base. Still, rising costs of living and increasing unemployment disappointed many as grandiose promises of economic growth remained unfulfilled.

This disappointment registered with voters during the elections in five states in late 2018. The BJP lost in all five states, including the BJP strongholds of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh. The rival Indian National Congress (Congress Party) won more state assembly seats than the BJP in all five elections. Many observers believed that this portended bad news for Modi and the BJP in the national elections set for the spring of 2019, but others believed that Modi’s charisma would excite the voters. Moreover, a security crisis in Jammu and Kashmir in February 2019, which escalated tensions with Pakistan to the highest point in decades, boosted Modi’s image just months before the election. With the BJP dominating the airwaves during the campaign—in contrast to the lacklustre campaign of Rahul Gandhi and Congress—the BJP was returned to power, and Modi became India’s first prime minister outside of the Congress Party to be reelected after a full term.

In spring of 2021, India experienced a deadly surge on COVID-19. Because of his poor handling of the pandemic, the country faced an oxygen shortage, vaccine shortfall, and misinformation, causing India to become the worst-hit country. He notably called the virus a hoax, and later suggested yoga to try and combat the virus.

Trivia

• Many of his supporters have been spreading Islamophobia, including using Islamophobic taunts to demonstrate support to Israel.