Narendra modi wife
Narendra Modi
Prime Minister of India since 2014
"Modi" redirects here. For other uses, see Modi (disambiguation).
Narendra Damodardas Modi[a] (born 17 September 1950)[b] is an Indian politician who has been serving as the Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the member of parliament (MP) for Varanasi. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wingHindu nationalistparamilitary volunteer organisation. He is the longest-serving prime minister outside the Indian National Congress.[4]
Modi was born and raised in Vadnagar in northeastern Gujarat, where he completed his secondary education. He was introduced to the RSS at the age of eight. At the age of 18, he was married to Jashodaben Modi, whom he abandoned soon after, only publicly acknowledging her four decades later when legally required to do so. Modi became a full-time worker for the RSS in Gujarat in 1971. The RSS assigned him to the BJP in 1985 and he rose through the party hierarchy, becoming general secretary in 1998.[c] In 2001, Modi was appointed Chief Minister of Gujarat and elected to the legislative assembly soon after. His administration is considered complicit in the 2002 Gujarat riots,[d] and has been criticised for its management of the crisis. According to official records, a little over 1,000 people were killed, three-quarters of whom were Muslim; independent sources estimated 2,000 deaths, mostly Muslim.[13] A Special Investigation Team appointed by the Supreme Court of India in 2012 found no evidence to initiate prosecution proceedings against him.[e] While his policies as chief minister were credited for encouraging economic growth, his administration was criticised for failing to significantly improve health, poverty and education indices in the state.[f]
In the 2014 Indian general election, Modi led the BJP to a parliamentary majority, the first for a party since 1984. His administration increased direct foreign investment, and reduced spending on healthcare, education, and social-welfare programmes. Modi began a high-profile sanitation campaign, controversially initiated a demonetisation of banknotes and introduced the Goods and Services Tax, and weakened or abolished environmental and labour laws. Modi's administration launched the 2019 Balakot airstrike against an alleged terrorist training camp in Pakistan. The airstrike failed,[16][17] but the action had nationalist appeal.[18] Modi's party won the 2019 general election which followed.[19] In its second term, his administration revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir,[20][21] and introduced the Citizenship Amendment Act, prompting widespread protests, and spurring the 2020 Delhi riots in which Muslims were brutalised and killed by Hindu mobs.[22][23][24] Three controversial farm laws led to sit-ins by farmers across the country, eventually causing their formal repeal. Modi oversaw India's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, during which, according to the World Health Organization's estimates, 4.7 million Indians died.[25][26] In the 2024 general election, Modi's party lost its majority in the lower house of Parliament and formed a government leading the National Democratic Alliance coalition.[27][28]
Under Modi's tenure, India has experienced democratic backsliding, or the weakening of democratic institutions, individual rights, and freedom of expression.[29][30][g] As prime minister, he has received consistently high approval ratings.[36][37][38] Modi has been described as engineering a political realignment towards right-wing politics. He remains a controversial figure domestically and internationally, over his Hindu nationalist beliefs and handling of the Gujarat riots, which have been cited as evidence of a majoritarian and exclusionary social agenda.[h]
Early life and education
Narendra Damodardas Modi was born on 17 September 1950 to a GujaratiHindu family of Other Backward Class (OBC) background[45][46] in Vadnagar, Mehsana district, Bombay State (present-day Gujarat). He was the third of six children born to Damodardas Mulchand Modi (c. 1915–1989) and Hiraben Modi (1923–2022).[b][48]
Modi had infrequently worked as a child in his father's tea business on the Vadnagar railway station platform, according to Modi and his neighbours.[49][50][51]
Modi completed his higher secondary education in Vadnagar in 1967; his teachers described him as an average student and a keen, gifted debater with an interest in theatre.[52] He preferred playing larger-than-life characters in theatrical productions, which has influenced his political image.[54]
When Modi was eight years old, he was introduced to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and began attending its local shakhas (training sessions). There, he met Lakshmanrao Inamdar, who inducted Modi as a balswayamsevak (junior cadet) in the RSS and became his political mentor. While Modi was training with the RSS, he also met Vasant Gajendragadkar and Nathalal Jaghda, Bharatiya Jana Sangh leaders who in 1980 helped found the BJP's Gujarat unit.[56] As a teenager, he was enrolled in the National Cadet Corps.[57]
In a custom traditional to Narendra Modi's caste, his family arranged a betrothal to Jashodaben Chimanlal Modi, leading to their marriage when she was 17 and he was 18.[58][59] Soon afterwards, he abandoned his wife,[60] and left home. The couple never divorced but the marriage was not in his public pronouncements for many decades.[59] In April 2014, shortly before the national election in which he gained power, Modi publicly affirmed he was married and that his spouse was Jashodaben.[61] A Modi biographer wrote that Modi kept the marriage a secret because he would not have been able to become a pracharak in the RSS, for which celibacy had once been a requirement.[62]
Modi spent the following two years travelling across northern and north-eastern India. In interviews, he has described visiting Hindu ashrams founded by Swami Vivekananda: the Belur Math near Kolkata, the Advaita Ashrama in Almora and the Ramakrishna Mission in Rajkot. His stays at each ashram were brief because he lacked the required college education.[65] Vivekananda has had a large influence in Modi's life.[66]
In mid 1968, Modi reached Belur Math but was turned away, after which he visited Calcutta, West Bengal and Assam, stopping in Siliguri and Guwahati. He then went to the Ramakrishna Ashram in Almora, where he was again rejected, before returning to Gujarat via Delhi and Rajasthan in 1968 to 1969. In either late 1969 or early 1970, he returned to Vadnagar for a brief visit before leaving again for Ahmedabad,[68] where he lived with his uncle and worked in his uncle's canteen at Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation.
In Ahmedabad, Modi renewed his acquaintance with Inamdar, who was based at the Hedgewar Bhavan (RSS headquarters) in the city.[70][71] Modi's first-known political activity as an adult was in 1971 when he joined a Jana Sangh Satyagraha in Delhi led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee to enlist to fight in the Bangladesh Liberation War.[73][74] The Indira Gandhi-led central government prohibited open support for the Mukti Bahini; according to Modi, he was briefly held in Tihar Jail.[75][76][77] After the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, Modi left his uncle's employment and became a full-time pracharak (campaigner) for the RSS, working under Inamdar. Shortly before the war, Modi took part in a non-violent protest in New Delhi against the Indian government, for which he was arrested; because of this arrest, Inamdar decided to mentor Modi. According to Modi, he was part of a Satyagraha that led to a political war.[76][i]
In 1978, Modi received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in political science from the School of Open Learning[82] at the Delhi University.[62][83] In 1983, he received a Master of Arts (MA) degree in political science from Gujarat University, graduating with a first class[84][85] as an external distance learning student.[86] There is a controversy surrounding the authenticity of his BA and MA degrees.[87][88][j]
Early political career
In June 1975, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency in India that lasted until 1977. During this period, known as "the Emergency", many of her political opponents were jailed and opposition groups were banned. Modi was appointed general secretary of the "Gujarat Lok Sangharsh Samiti", an RSS committee coordinating opposition to the Emergency in Gujarat. Shortly afterwards, the RSS was banned. Modi was forced to go underground in Gujarat and frequently travelled in disguise to avoid arrest, once dressing as a monk and once as a Sikh.[95] He became involved in the printing of pamphlets opposing the government, sending them to Delhi and organising demonstrations. He was also involved with creating a network of safe houses for individuals who were wanted by the government, and in raising funds for political refugees and activists.[98] During this period, Modi wrote a Gujarati-language book titled Sangharsh Ma Gujarat (In the Struggles of Gujarat), which describes events during the Emergency.[99][100] While in this role, Modi met trade unionist and socialist activist George Fernandes and several other national political figures.
Modi became an RSS sambhag pracharak (regional organiser) in 1978, overseeing activities in Surat and Vadodara, and in 1979, he went to work for the RSS in Delhi, where he researched and wrote the RSS's history of the Emergency. Shortly after, he returned to Gujarat and in 1985, the RSS assigned him to the BJP. In 1987, Modi helped organise the BJP's campaign in the Ahmedabad municipal election, which the party won comfortably; according to biographers, Modi's planning was responsible for the win.[102] After L. K. Advani became president of the BJP in 1986, the RSS decided to place its members in important positions within the party; Modi's work during the Ahmedabad election led to his selection for this role. Modi was elected organising secretary of the BJP's Gujarat unit later in 1987.[104]
Modi rose within the party and was named a member of its National Election Committee in 1990, helping organise Advani's Ram Rath Yatra in 1990 and Murli Manohar Joshi's 1991–1992 Ekta Yatra (Journey for Unity).[52] Modi took a brief break from politics in 1992 to establish a school in Ahmedabad, and due to friction with Shankersinh Vaghela, a BJP MP from Gujarat. Modi returned to electoral politics in 1994, partly at the insistence of Advani; as party secretary, Modi's electoral strategy was considered central to the BJP victory in the 1995 state assembly election.[107][108] In November of that year, Modi was appointed BJP national secretary and transferred to New Delhi, where he assumed responsibility for party activities in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.[109] The following year, Shankersinh Vaghela, a prominent BJP leader from Gujarat, defected to the Indian National Congress after losing his parliamentary seat in the Lok Sabha election.[52] Modi, who was on the selection committee for the 1998 Gujarat Legislative Assembly election, favoured supporters of BJP leader Keshubhai Patel over those supporting Vaghela to end factional division in the party. His strategy was credited as central to the BJP winning an overall majority in the 1998 election,[110] and Modi was promoted to BJP general secretary (organisation) in May of that year.
Chief Minister of Gujarat (2001–2014)
Main article: Chief ministership of Narendra Modi
Taking office
In 2001, Keshubhai Patel's health was failing, and the BJP lost a few state assembly seats in 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 earthquake in Bhuj in 2001.[110][112][113] The BJP national leadership sought a new candidate for the chief ministership, and Modi, who had expressed misgivings about Patel's administration, was chosen as a replacement.[52] Advani did not want to ostracise Patel and was concerned about Modi's lack of experience in government. Modi declined an offer to become Patel's deputy chief minister, telling Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee he was "going to be fully responsible for Gujarat or not at all". On 3 October 2001, Modi replaced Patel as Chief Minister of Gujarat with the responsibility of preparing the BJP for the upcoming December 2002 election.[114] On 7 October, Modi was sworn in[115] and he entered the Gujarat state legislature on 24 February 2002 after winning a by-election in Rajkot II constituency, defeating Ashwin Mehta of the INC.[116]
2002 Gujarat riots
Main article: 2002 Gujarat riots
On 27 February 2002, a train with several hundred passengers burned near Godhra, killing approximately 60 people.[k][119] The train carried a large number of Hindu pilgrims who were returning from Ayodhya after a religious ceremony at the site of the demolished Babri Masjid.[120][121] In a public statement, Modi said local Muslims were responsible for the incident.[10][120][122] The next day, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad called for a bandh (general strike) across the state.[123][124] Riots began during the bandh and anti-Muslim violence spread through Gujarat.[120][123][124] The government's decision to move the bodies of the train victims from Godhra to Ahmedabad further inflamed the violence.[120][125] The state government later stated 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus were killed during the riots;[121] independent sources put the death toll at over 2,000,[120][119][126] the vast majority of them Muslims.[119] Approximately 150,000 people were driven to refugee camps.[127] Numerous women and children were among the victims; the violence included mass rapes and mutilation of women.[9][128]
Scholars consider the Government of Gujarat to have been complicit in the riots,[10][129] and it has received much criticism for its handling of the situation;[130] some scholars explicitly blame Modi.[9][131][132] The Modi government imposed a curfew in 26 major cities, issued shoot-at-sight orders and called for the army to patrol the streets; these measures failed to prevent the violence from escalating.[123][124] The president of the state unit of the BJP expressed support for the bandh despite such actions being illegal at the time.[10] State officials later prevented riot victims from leaving the refugee camps, which were often unable to meet the needs of those living there.[133] Muslim victims of the riots were subjected to further discrimination when the state government announced their compensation would be half that offered to Hindu victims; this decision was later reversed after the issue was taken to court.[134] During the riots, police officers often did not intervene in situations where they were able.[9][122][135] Several scholars have described the violence as a pogrom and others have called it an example of state terrorism.[136][137][138] According to Martha Nussbaum, "There is by now a broad consensus that the Gujarat violence was a form of ethnic cleansing, that in many ways it was premeditated, and that it was carried out with the complicity of the state government and officers of the law".[9]
Modi's personal involvement in the 2002 events has continued to be debated. During the riots, he said, "What is happening is a chain of action and reaction".[9] Later in 2002, Modi said the way in which he had handled the media was his only regret regarding the episode.[139] In March 2008, the Supreme Court of India reopened several cases related to the riots, including that of the Gulbarg Society massacre, and established a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to look into the issue.[130][140][141] In response to a petition from Zakia Jafri, the widow of Ehsan Jafri, who was killed in the Gulbarg Society massacre, in April 2009, the court also asked the SIT to investigate Modi's complicity in the killings.[140] The SIT questioned Modi in March 2010; in May, it presented to the court a report finding no evidence against him.[140][142] In July 2011, the court-appointed amicus curiaeRaju Ramachandran submitted his final report to the court. Contrary to the SIT's position, Ramachandran said Modi could be prosecuted based on the available evidence.[143][144] The Supreme Court sent the matter to the magistrate's court. The SIT examined Ramachandran's report, and in March 2012 submitted its final report, asking for the case to be closed. Zakia Jafri filed a protest petition in response. In December 2013, the magistrate's court rejected the protest petition, accepting the SIT's finding there was no evidence against Modi.[145] In 2022, the Supreme Court dismissed a petition by Zakia Jafri in which she challenged the clean chit given to Modi in the riots by the SIT, and upheld previous rulings that no evidence against him was found.[146][147][148]
Later terms as Chief Minister
Main article: 2002 Gujarat Legislative Assembly election
Following the violence, calls for Modi to resign as chief minister were made from politicians within and outside the state, including leaders of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Telugu Desam Party—partners in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance coalition—and opposition parties stalled Parliament over the issue.[149] Modi submitted his resignation at the April 2002 BJP national executive meeting in Goa but it was not accepted.[150] Despite opposition from the election commissioner, who said a number of voters were still displaced, Modi succeeded in advancing the election to December 2002.[151] In the election, the BJP won 127 seats in the 182-member assembly.[152] Modi made significant use of anti-Muslim rhetoric during his campaign,[153][154][155][156]