121 Facts About Modi

Narendra Damodardas Modi is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current prime minister of India since 2014.

Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from Varanasi.

Modi is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party and of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a right-wing Hindu nationalist paramilitary volunteer organisation.

Modi is the longest serving prime minister from outside the Indian National Congress.

Modi was born and raised in Vadnagar in northeastern Gujarat, where he completed his secondary education.

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Modi has discussed having to work as a child in his father's tea stall in the Vadnagar railway station, which has not been reliably corroborated.

At age 18, Modi was married to Jashodaben Chimanlal Modi, whom he abandoned soon after.

Modi has asserted he had travelled in northern India for two years after leaving his parental home, visiting a number of religious centres, but few details of his travels have emerged.

Modi was appointed Chief Minister of Gujarat in 2001 due to Keshubhai Patel's failing health and poor public image following the earthquake in Bhuj.

Modi's administration has been considered complicit in the 2002 Gujarat riots in which 1044 people were killed, three-quarters of whom were Muslim, or otherwise criticised for its management of the crisis.

Modi led the BJP in the 2014 general election which gave the party a majority in the lower house of Indian parliament, the Lok Sabha, the first time for any single party since 1984.

Modi's administration has tried to raise foreign direct investment in the Indian economy and reduced spending on healthcare, education, and social welfare programmes.

Modi began a high-profile sanitation campaign, controversially initiated a demonetisation of high-denomination banknotes and a transformation of the taxation regime, and weakened or abolished environmental and labour laws.

Modi has received consistently high approval ratings during his tenure.

Narendra Damodardas Modi was born on 17 September 1950 to a Gujarati Hindu family of grocers in Vadnagar, Mehsana district, Bombay State.

Modi's family belonged to the Modh-Ghanchi-Teli community, which is categorised as an Other Backward Class by the Indian government.

Modi had only infrequently spoken of his family background during his 13 years as chief minister of Gujarat.

Modi completed his higher secondary education in Vadnagar in 1967, where teachers described him as an average student and a keen gifted debater, with interest in theatre.

Modi preferred playing larger-than-life characters in theatrical productions, which has influenced his political image.

When eight years old, Modi was introduced to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and began attending its local shakhas.

Modi spent the ensuing two years travelling across Northern and North-eastern India, though few details of where he went have emerged.

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.

Sometime in late 1969 or early 1970, Modi returned to Vadnagar for a brief visit before leaving again for Ahmedabad.

Modi's first known political activity as an adult was in 1971 when he, as per his remarks, joined a Jana Sangh Satyagraha in Delhi led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee to enlist for the battlefield during the Bangladesh Liberation War.

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Shortly before the war, Modi took part in a non-violent protest against the Indian government in New Delhi, for which he was arrested ; this has been cited as a reason for Inamdar electing to mentor him.

In 1978 Modi received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the School of Open Learning at the University of Delhi, graduating with a third class.

Modi was appointed general secretary of the "Gujarat Lok Sangharsh Samiti", an RSS committee co-ordinating opposition to the Emergency in Gujarat.

Modi was forced to go underground in Gujarat and frequently travelled in disguise to avoid arrest.

Modi became involved in printing pamphlets opposing the government, sending them to Delhi and organising demonstrations.

Modi was involved with creating a network of safe houses for individuals wanted by the government, and in raising funds for political refugees and activists.

Modi became an RSS sambhag pracharak in 1978, overseeing RSS activities in the areas of Surat and Vadodara, and in 1979 he went to work for the RSS in Delhi, where he was put to work researching and writing the RSS's version of the history of the Emergency.

Modi returned to Gujarat a short while later, and was assigned by the RSS to the BJP in 1985.

In 1987 Modi helped organise the BJP's campaign in the Ahmedabad municipal election, which the BJP won comfortably; Modi's planning has been described as the reason for that result by biographers.

Modi returned to electoral politics in 1994, partly at the insistence of Advani, and as party secretary, Modi's electoral strategy was considered central to the BJP victory in the 1995 state assembly elections.

Modi's strategy was credited as key to the BJP winning an overall majority in the 1998 elections, and Modi was promoted to BJP general secretary in May of that year.

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.

Modi was sworn in as Chief Minister on 7 October 2001, and entered the Gujarat state legislature on 24 February 2002 by winning a by-election to the Rajkot – II constituency, defeating Ashwin Mehta of the INC.

In making a public statement after the incident, Modi declared it a terrorist attack planned and orchestrated by local Muslims.

Contrary to the SIT's position, he said that Modi could be prosecuted based on the available evidence.

Modi submitted his resignation at the April 2002 BJP national executive meeting in Goa, but it was not accepted.

Modi he made significant use of anti-Muslim rhetoric during his campaign, and the BJP profited from religious polarisation among the voters.

Modi framed the criticism of his government for human rights violations as an attack upon Gujarati pride, a strategy which led to the BJP winning two-thirds of the seats in the state assembly.

Modi won the Maninagar constituency, defeating INC candidate Yatin Oza.

Modi curtailed the influence of Sangh Parivar organisations such as the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh and the Vishva Hindu Parishad.

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Modi wrote a foreword to a 2014 textbook by Dinanath Batra, which stated that ancient India possessed technologies including test-tube babies.

Modi was barred from entering the United States by the State Department, in accordance with the recommendations of the Commission on International Religious Freedom, the only person denied a US visa under this law.

In 2007 Modi authored Karmayog, a 101-page booklet discussing manual scavenging.

In July 2007 Modi completed 2,063 consecutive days as chief minister of Gujarat, making him the longest-serving holder of that post.

Modi only attended Hindu religious ceremonies, and had prominent associations with Hindu religious leaders.

Modi's campaign included references to issues known to cause religious polarisation, including to Afzal Guru and the killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh.

Modi won the constituency of Maninagar, defeating Shweta Bhatt of the INC.

Modi established financial and technology parks in Gujarat and during the 2007 Vibrant Gujarat summit, real-estate investment deals worth 6.

Governments led by Patel and Modi supported NGOs and communities in the creation of groundwater-conservation projects.

In 2008 Modi offered land in Gujarat to Tata Motors to set up a plant manufacturing the Nano after a popular agitation had forced the company to move out of West Bengal.

Modi government finished the process of bringing electricity to every village in Gujarat that its predecessor had almost completed.

Modi significantly changed the state's system of power distribution, greatly impacting farmers.

Gujarat had a high rate of economic growth in the 1990s, before Modi took office, and some scholars have stated that growth did not much accelerate during Modi's tenure.

Under Modi, Gujarat topped the World Bank's "ease of doing business" rankings among Indian states for two consecutive years.

In September 2013 Modi was named the BJP's candidate for prime minister ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha election.

Several BJP leaders expressed opposition to Modi's candidature, including BJP founding member L K Advani, who cited concern with leaders who were "concerned with their personal agendas".

Modi played a dominant role in the BJP's election campaign.

Several people who voted for the BJP stated that if Modi had not been the prime-ministerial candidate, they would have voted for another party.

Modi projected himself as a person who could bring about "development, " without focus on any specific policies.

Modi's message found support among young Indians and among middle-class citizens.

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The BJP under Modi was able to downplay concerns about the protection of religious minorities and Modi's commitment to secularism, areas in which he had previously received criticism.

Modi's tweet announcing his victory was described as being emblematic of the political realignment away from a secular, socialist state towards capitalism and Hindu cultural nationalism.

Modi himself was a candidate for the Lok Sabha in two constituencies: Varanasi and Vadodara.

Modi won in both constituencies, defeating Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal in Varanasi by 371,784 votes and Madhusudan Mistry of the INC in Vadodara by 570,128 votes.

Modi, who was unanimously elected leader of the BJP, was appointed prime minister by India's president.

On 13 October 2018, Modi was named the BJP candidate for prime minister for the 2019 general election.

Modi launched the Main Bhi Chowkidar campaign ahead of the general election, against Chowkidar Chor Hai campaign slogan of INC.

Modi made defence and national security among the foremost topics for the election campaign, especially after Pulwama attack, and the retaliatory attack of Balakot airstrike was counted as an achievement of the Modi administration.

Modi contested the Lok Sabha elections as a candidate from Varanasi.

Modi won the seat by defeating Shalini Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, who fought on SP-BSP alliance by a margin of 479,505 votes.

Modi was unanimously appointed the prime minister for a second time by the National Democratic Alliance, after the alliance won the election for the second time by securing 353 seats in the Lok Sabha with the BJP alone won 303 seats.

Modi became the first Prime Minister born after India's independence from the British Empire in 1947.

Modi started his second term after the National Democratic Alliance won again in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

On 6 December 2020, Modi became the 4th longest serving Prime Minister of India and the longest serving Non-Congress Prime Minister.

In December 2014 Modi abolished the Planning Commission, replacing it with the National Institution for Transforming India, or NITI Aayog.

Modi government launched investigations by the Intelligence Bureau against numerous civil society organisations and foreign non-governmental organisations in the first year of the administration.

Modi repealed 1,200 obsolete laws in first three years as prime minister; a total of 1,301 such laws had been repealed by previous governments over a span of 64 years.

Modi launched the Digital India programme, with the goal of ensuring that government services are available electronically, building infrastructure to provide high-speed Internet access to rural areas, boosting manufacturing of electronic goods in the country, and promoting digital literacy.

The RSS provided organisational support to the BJP's electoral campaigns, while the Modi administration appointed a number of individuals affiliated with the RSS to prominent government positions.

Over its first term the Modi administration appointed other RSS members to lead universities and research institutions, and recruitment of faculty members favoring the RSS increased.

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The Modi administration made numerous changes in government-approved history textbooks.

Modi administration passed a citizenship law in 2019 which provided a pathway to Indian citizenship for persecuted religious minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis or Christians.

On 5 August 2020, Modi visited Ayodhya after the Supreme Court in 2019 ordered a contested land in Ayodhya to be handed over to a trust to build the Hindu temple and ordered the government to give alternate 5 acre land to Sunni Waqf Board for the purpose of building a mosque.

Modi became the first prime minister to visit Ram Janmabhoomi and Hanuman Garhi.

Economic policies of Modi's government focused on privatisation and liberalisation of the economy, based on a neoliberal framework.

Modi liberalised India's foreign direct investment policies, allowing more foreign investment in several industries, including in defence and the railways.

In September 2014, Modi introduced the Make in India initiative to encourage foreign companies to manufacture products in India, with the goal of turning the country into a global manufacturing hub.

Modi's administration passed a land-reform bill that allowed it to acquire private agricultural land without conducting a social impact assessment, and without the consent of the farmers who owned it.

Modi's government put in place the Goods and Services Tax, the biggest tax reform in the country since independence.

The Modi government launched New Health Policy in January 2015.

Modi emphasised his government's efforts at sanitation as a means of ensuring good health.

The Modi government was successful in forging good foreign relations with the USA in the presidencies of both Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

Modi made several overtures to the United States, including multiple visits to that country.

Modi's administration gave renewed attention to India's "Look East Policy", instituted in 1991.

Modi has pledged aid of $900 million to Afghanistan, visited the nation twice and been honoured with the nation's highest civilian honour in 2016.

Modi promised to be "tough on Pakistan" during his election campaign, and repeatedly stated that Pakistan was an exporter of terrorism.

Modi signed an agreement with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in December 2021 to extend military technical cooperation.

The Modi government struck a deal with Russia, buying the S-400 missile system, an anti-missile striking system thereby constructing much stronger ties and relationship between the two nations.

Prime Minister Modi sent 4 special envoys headed by the union ministers Hardeep Singh Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju and V K Singh to the neighboring nations of Ukraine to assist coordination efforts.

At the COP26 conference Modi announced that India would target carbon neutrality by 2070, and expand its renewable energy capacity.

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Modi has received consistently high approval ratings during his tenure; he is often ranked in popular opinion polls as the greatest prime minister in Indian history.

Vegetarian and teetotaler, Modi has a frugal lifestyle and is a workaholic and introvert.

Modi maintains a close relationship with his centenarian mother, Hiraben.

Modi has been called a fashion-icon for his signature crisply ironed, half-sleeved kurta, as well as for a suit with his name embroidered repeatedly in the pinstripes that he wore during a state visit by US President Barack Obama, which drew public and media attention and criticism.

Modi's personality has been variously described by scholars and biographers as energetic, arrogant, and charismatic.

Modi had published a Gujarati book titled Jyotipunj in 2008, containing profiles of various RSS leaders.

Modi authored eight other books, mostly containing short stories for children.

Modi has relied upon his reputation as a politician able to bring about economic growth and "development".

Modi appeared in an episode of Discovery Channel's show Man vs Wild with the host Bear Grylls, becoming the second world leader after Barack Obama to appear in the reality show.

In March 2012 and June 2014, Modi appeared on the cover of the Asian edition of Time Magazine, one of the few Indian politicians to have done so.

Modi was awarded Indian of the Year by CNN-News18 news network in 2014.

In 2015, Modi was ranked the 13th Most Influential Person in the World by Bloomberg Markets Magazine.

Modi was ranked fifth on Fortune Magazines first annual list of the "World's Greatest Leaders" in 2015.

In 2016, a wax statue of Modi was unveiled at Madame Tussauds wax museum in London.

Modi was conferred the 2018 Seoul Peace Prize in recognition of "his dedication to improving international co-operation, raising global economic growth, accelerating the Human Development of the people of India by fostering economic growth and furthering the development of democracy through anti-corruption and social integration efforts".

In 2020, Modi was among eight world leaders awarded the parodic Ig Nobel Prize in Medical Education "for using the COVID-19 viral pandemic to teach the world that politicians can have a more immediate effect on life and death than scientists and doctors can".