Narendra Modi
Narendra Modi has been Prime Minister of India since May 2014, the first born after independence and the first in three decades to win a parliamentary majority. Born in Vadnagar, Gujarat in 1950 into a family of the Ghanchi caste, he helped at his father's tea stall as a boy. He joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Hindu nationalist volunteer organisation, in his teens and became a full-time pracharak, or organiser. He worked as an RSS and then BJP organiser for two decades, managing campaigns rather than contesting them, and was appointed Chief Minister of Gujarat in October 2001 without ever having been elected to office. In February 2002 a train fire at Godhra killed fifty-nine Hindu pilgrims, and communal violence followed in which around a thousand people died, most of them Muslim. Modi's handling was widely condemned; he was denied a visa by the United States for years. A Supreme Court-appointed investigation found insufficient evidence to prosecute him, and its conclusion was upheld in 2022. Gujarat under him grew rapidly, and he built a reputation for infrastructure, electricity supply and attracting investment, which became the basis of the 2014 national campaign. In office he introduced a nationwide goods and services tax, a large sanitation programme, direct benefit transfers and rural electrification, and demonetised eighty-six per cent of the currency overnight in November 2016, causing severe disruption for uncertain gain. His second term revoked Jammu and Kashmir's autonomy under Article 370 in 2019 and passed a citizenship law excluding Muslim migrants, prompting protests. He won a third term in 2024 but lost his majority, governing in coalition for the first time.
- Lived: 1950 CE – ?
- Nationality: Indian
- Roles: Prime Minister of India (2014-present)
