Narendra Modi: The Journey From Chai Wala To The PM Of World’s Largest Democracy

Mumbai: Everyone in India has surely faced the most historic day yesterday as Narendra Modi led his BJP to a notorious victory for the second time in the office. Narendra Modi was first elected as the 14th Prime Minister in 2014 Lok Sabha elections and thus led BJP to a massive victory. With the General Elections 2019, establishing Modi as the most popular leader of the decade, BJP not only surpassed the 2014 elections but also crossed 300-seat marked in the 543-member Lok Sabha election in 2019.

Born on 17th September 1950 to a Gujarati family in Vadnagar, Narendra Damodardas Modi became the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the member of the Parliament for Varanasi. Modi is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a Hindu nationalist volunteer organisation.

In his childhood days, Modi helped his father sell tea as a child and has said he later ran his own stall. He was introduced to the RSS at the age of eight, beginning a long association with the organisation. Modi left home after finishing high-school and later got married to Jashodaben Chimanlal, which he abandoned, and publicly acknowledged only many decades later. Narendra Modi has also been declared a fashion-icon for his signature half-sleeved, crispy ironed kurta as well as for a suit with his name repeatedly embroidered in the pinstripes that he wore during a state visit by Barak Obama, former US President.

Modi travelled around India for two years and visited a number of religious centres before returning to Gujarat. In 1971 he became a full-time worker for the RSS. During the state of emergency imposed across the country in 1975, Modi was forced to go into hiding. The RSS assigned him to the BJP in 1985, and he held several positions within the party hierarchy until 2001, rising to the rank of General Secretary.

In 2001, Modi was appointed Chief Minister of Gujarat, after Keshubhai Patel’s failing health and poor public image following the earthquake in Bhuj. He was also elected to the legislative assembly soon after. His administration has been considered complicit in the 2002 Gujarat riots, or otherwise criticised for its handling of it. A Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team found no evidence to initiate prosecution proceedings against Modi personally. His policies as chief minister, credited with encouraging economic growth, have received praise. His administration has been criticised for failing to significantly improve health, poverty, and education indices in the state.

Modi led the BJP in the 2014 general election, which gave the party a majority in the Indian lower house of 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 and social welfare programmes. Modi has attempted to improve efficiency in the bureaucracy, he has centralised power by abolishing the Planning Commission. He began a high-profile sanitation campaign like the Swacch Bharat Abhiyaan and weakened or abolished environmental and labour laws. He initiated a controversial demonetisation of high-denomination banknotes, in which he announced demolition of all the 500 and 1000 rupee notes overnight. Described as engineering a political realignment towards right-wing politics, Modi remains a figure of controversy domestically and internationally over his Hindu nationalist beliefs and his role during the 2002 Gujarat riots, cited as evidence of an exclusionary social agenda.

As a Prime Minister, Modi has received consistently high approval ratings; at the end of his first year in office, he received an overall approval rating of 87% in a Pew Research poll, with 68% of people rating him “very favourably” and 93% approving of his government. His approval rating remained largely consistent at around 74% through his second year in office, according to a nationwide poll conducted by instaVaani. At the end of his second year in office, an updated Pew Research poll showed Modi continued to receive high overall approval ratings of 81%, with 57% of those polled rating him “very favourably.” At the end of his third year in office, a further Pew Research poll showed Modi with an overall approval rating of 88%, his highest yet, with 69% of people polled rating him “very favourably.” A poll conducted by The Times of India in May 2017 showed 77% of the respondents rated Modi as “very good” and “good”. In early 2017, a survey from the Pew Research Center showed Modi to be the most popular figure in Indian politics.

Modi was named the Best Chief Minister in a 2007 nationwide survey by India Today. In March 2012, he appeared on the cover of the Asian edition of Time Magazine, one of the few Indian politicians to have done so.

He was awarded Indian of the Year by CNN-IBN news network in 2014. In 2014, 2015 and 2017, he was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. He was also declared a winner of the Time magazine reader’s poll for Person of the Year in 2014 and 2016. Forbes Magazine ranked him the 15th-Most-Powerful Person in the World in 2014 and the 9th-Most-Powerful Person in the World in 2015, 2016 and 2018. In 2015, Modi was ranked the 13th-Most-Influential Person in the World by Bloomberg Markets Magazine. Modi was ranked fifth on Fortune Magazine’s first annual list of the “World’s Greatest Leaders” in 2015. In 2017, the Gallup International Association (GIA) conducted a poll and ranked Modi as third top leader of the world. In 2016, a wax statue of Modi was unveiled at Madame Tussaud Wax Museum in London.

In 2015 he was named one of Time’s “30 Most Influential People on the Internet” as the second-most-followed politician on Twitter and Facebook. In 2018 he was the third most followed head of the state on Twitter and the most followed world leader on Facebook and Instagram. In October 2018, Modi received UN’s highest environmental award, the ‘Champions of the Earth’, for policy leadership by “pioneering work in championing” the International Solar Alliance and “new areas of levels of cooperation on environmental action”.

He has conferred the 2018 Seoul Peace Prize in recognition of his dedication to improving international cooperation, 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. He is the first Indian to win the award. In January 2019, PM Narendra Modi, a biographic film starring Vivek Oberoi as Modi, was announced.

Being the most well-known personality around the globe Narendra Modi has been born and brought up in a humble family, his journey towards becoming one of the most prominent world leaders was challenging. Narendra Modi has re-written history after becoming the first prime minister outside of the Indian National Congress to win two consecutive terms with a full majority, and the second one to complete five years in office after Atal Bihari Vajpayee.