Narendra Modi

Narendra Damodardas Modi (born: September 17, 1950, Vadnagar, India) - Indian politician and statesman, Prime Minister of India since May 26, 2014, leader of Bharatiya janata party. In 2001-2014, he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat.

Biography

He was born third in a family of four. His father belonged to the caste of the Ghanchis. During his childhood and teenage years, Modi ran his father's tea stand with his brother. As an adult, he studied at the universities of Delhi and Gujarat. He holds a master's degree in political science. However, he received his most important education in the ranks of the Rashtriya Swayamasevak Sangh (RSS, the corps of national volunteers) of which he became a member as a child. After his studies, Modi started his political career in 1988 as secretary of the Gujarat department for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In the mid-1990s, Modi became National Secretary and in 1998 Secretary-General of the BJP.

From 2001 to 2014, he was the 14th chief minister of the state of Gujarat. Modi's role in the 2002 Gujarat riots, where an estimated 1,000 Muslims were killed in three weeks, is controversial. Modi is accused of not putting anything in the way of Hindu aggression against Muslims. Gujarat was an economic success story during Modi's tenure.

In the 2014 parliamentary election, Modi led the BJP to a spectacular victory. The BJP gained the absolute majority in the Lok Sabha with 282 seats, the first time since a 1984 election that a party performed this and the first time that a party other than the Indian National Congress was the largest in the country. Modi was sworn in as Prime Minister of India on May 26, 2014.

For a long time, Modi was thought to be unmarried. It was only during the election campaign in 2014 that it turned out that he had been married for 45 years. It was an arranged marriage. Shortly after the wedding, Modi left his wife, but did not divorce her.

Young years

Narendra Damodardas Modi was born on September 17, 1950 in the city of Vadnagar. He was the third of six children in the family of Damodardas Mulchand Modi (c. 1915-1989) and his wife Hiraben (b. 1920). In his early youth, he became interested in politics, joined the ranks of Rastria Svayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He was educated as a political scientist.

Political career

In 1998, on behalf of the then acting leader of Bharatiya Janat party Lal Krishna Adwani, he led the election campaign of this party in the states of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. In October 2001, he became the chief minister of Gujarat, replacing the retired Keshubhai Patel. In 2007, he was re-elected for a third term, and in 2012 for a fourth.

Both in India and abroad, Modi is considered an extremely controversial figure. His actions during the Gujarat pogrom of 2002 caused sharp criticism. In particular, he was accused of not providing protection to Indian Muslims. Despite this, Modi enjoys tremendous support among the population of Gujarat. He is credited with the rapid economic growth of the state in the 2000s. According to the popular magazine India Today, in 2006 and 2011. N. Modi was recognized as the best chief minister of India.

Activities as Prime Minister

On September 13, 2013, Narendra Modi was named prime minister's candidate for Bharatiya Janata Party and led the campaign for the 2014 parliamentary elections. According to him, he held 440 meetings with voters across the country. In addition, Modi successfully used social networks, resorting even to three-dimensional holograms in order to "directly" communicate with voters in the virtual space. The BDP program slogan read: "Nationalism is our inspiration. Development and good governance are our goal".

Voting was held in nine stages from April 7 to May 12, with a turnout of 66.38%. May 16 Election Commission of India the beginning of counting of votes. According to preliminary data, Bharatiya Janata Party was the leader in 276 out of 543 constituencies, and the National Democratic Alliance in 331. After the preliminary vote count showed the overwhelming advantage of the BJP, the representative of the Indian National Congress, Rajiv Shukla, on behalf of the party said that "we admit defeat. We are ready to go to the opposition". According to estimates, the BJP can get 277 seats in the new composition of the Lock Sabha, with 272 necessary for the simple majority, and INCs - about 100 places. The current Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh, congratulated Narendra Modi on his election victory. In turn, Modi wrote on Twitter: "India won! Good days ahead". According to preliminary data, the BJP will receive 339 seats in parliament.

On May 17, Narendra Modi arrived in Delhi from Gujarat to conduct a victory parade ending at the party's headquarters. Along the route of the motorcade, police and special forces were set up. On the way to Bharatiya Janata party headquarters, people gathered along the streets chanted his name, waved flags, showered flowers with his motorcade, sang and danced to the sounds of a brass band and national flutes. Modi got out of the car several times, showing the crowd the "V" sign. On the same day, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recognized the victory of Bharatiya Janata Party in the elections and resigned, saying that he "tried to do everything possible during his service to the great people" of India. According to the final results of the vote, the United Progressive Alliance led by the Indian National Congress party won only 59 out of 543 constituencies, the BJP won 283 constituencies, thus gaining an absolute majority and becoming the first party in 30 years to form a government on its own. Singh will continue to serve as prime minister until a new. The BJP gained control only of the lower house of parliament, Lok Sabha, in rajya sabhashe has only 46 mandates out of 240 against 68 for the INC, which gives the latter a veto.

On May 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Narendra Modi on the victory of his party in the election.

On May 20, Narendra Modi was nominated as Prime Minister of India by Bharatiya Janata Party. According to the approved procedure, he will meet with the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, to ask for formal permission to head the government. It was expected that the oath could take place on May 24.

On May 26, Narendra Modi took the oath of office of the Prime Minister of India. The ceremony was attended by politicians and representatives of foreign countries, among whom was the Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif. Until now, the prime ministers of India and Pakistan have never come to the inauguration of their colleague. In addition to him, there were leaders of countries belonging to the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), as well as the presidents of Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, the prime ministers of Nepal and Bhutan, the speaker of the Parliament of Bangladesh. Before the start of the oath ceremony at the presidential palace in Delhi, Nawaz Sharif said that the election of Modi opens up opportunities for improving relations between the two countries. The next day, Modi held talks with Sharif, at which issues of cooperation in various fields, in particular in the field of border security, were discussed.

In 2018, he took 9th place in the ranking of the most influential people in the world according to Forbes magazine. He held the same position in 2015 and 2016.

Personal life

Narendra Modi actively communicates with his supporters on social networks. The number of followers of his page on Twitter, as of January 2019, is 45 million people. It is noteworthy that among politicians, only Barack Obama (104.1 million) and Donald Trump (57.2 million) have the most subscribers. Modi often posts tweets in the language of the country he is making an official visit to.

He is a vegetarian. He writes poems in the language of Gujarati.

Curiosities

In 2014, Narendra Modi said at a meeting with medical workers in a hospital in Mumbai that the story of the god Ganesha, who has the head of an elephant and a human body, indicates the existence of plastic surgery in ancient India.

In early June 2015, Narendra Modi accidentally hit the list of ten most dangerous criminals according to the Google search engine. His photo appeared first in response to the query "Top 10 criminals in India". The search engine management had to apologize for the "confusion and misunderstanding that occurred".