In September 2013, Modi was named the BJP's candidate for prime minister ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha election. [205] [206] Several BJP leaders, [207] including BJP founding member L. K. Advani who cited concern with leaders who were "concerned with their personal agendas", expressed opposition to Modi's candidature. [208] Modi played a dominant role in the BJP's 2009 general election campaign. [209] [210] Several people who voted for the BJP stated they would have voted for another party if Modi had not been the prime-ministerial candidate. [205] [211] [212] The focus on Modi as an individual was unusual for a BJP election campaign. [207] [213] The election was described as a referendum on Narendra Modi. [185] Modi meets his mother after winning the 2014 Indian general election The Modi government has also been notoriously thin-skinned about international criticism. Among those rebuked for speaking out are Greta Thunberg, the climate activist, and the singer Rihanna, who both expressed support for farmers protesting against Modi’s policies and who were subsequently the subject of a damning foreign ministry statement. What have been the implications for the BBC? This tangle of laws exemplifies the blatant hypocrisy of India’s ruling party, leaving India poised to disenfranchise much of its Muslim population. From the early 1990s, French political scientist Christophe Jaffrelot has written about Indian politics in the present, catching every wave as it crests. Over the past three decades he has produced some 30 books, monographs and edited volumes, in French and English, on all the salient political phenomena in India.

Today’s generation needs to see what happened in 2002 and make an informed choice,” he added. “Is this the India you want?” For cost savings, you can change your plan at any time online in the “Settings & Account” section. If you’d like to retain your premium access and save 20%, you can opt to pay annually at the end of the trial. President Joe Biden in a statement celebrating Indian Independence Day said the US and India were indispensable partners, and their partnership was grounded in a shared commitment to the rule of law and the promotion of human freedom and dignity. Narendra Damodardas Modi ( Gujarati: [ˈnəɾendɾə dɑmodəɾˈdɑs ˈmodiː] ⓘ; born 17 September 1950) [b] is an Indian politician who has served as the 14th prime minister of India since May 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 wing Hindu nationalist paramilitary volunteer organisation. He is the longest-serving prime minister from outside the Indian National Congress.Supporters of the new policy agree that it will be difficult initially to find easy Hindi equivalents. The Hindi for anatomy, for example, is the clunky “sharir rachna vigyan”. But the translators in Madhya Pradesh have already said that many English terms will be retained if no easy Hindi option exists. 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. [88] [89] Modi was appointed general secretary of the "Gujarat Lok Sangharsh Samiti", an RSS committee co-ordinating opposition to the Emergency in Gujarat. Shortly afterwards, the RSS was banned. [90] 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. [91] He became involved in the printing of pamphlets opposing the government, sending them to Delhi and organising demonstrations. [92] [93] 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. [94] During this period, Modi wrote a Gujarati-language book titled Sangharsh Ma Gujarat ( In the Struggles of Gujarat), which describes events during the Emergency. [95] [96] While in this role, Modi met trade unionist and socialist activist George Fernandes and several other national political figures. [97] The activities of a number of Hindu nationalist organisations increased in scope after Modi's appointment as prime minister, sometimes with the government's support. [255] [256] These activities included a Hindu religious conversion programme, a campaign against the supposed Islamic practice of " Love Jihad" and attempts to celebrate Nathuram Godse, the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi, by members of the right-wing organisation Hindu Mahasabha. [257] [258] Government officials, including the Home Minister, defended the conversion programmes. [214] Self-reliant India is the responsibility of every citizen, every government, every unit of society,” he said.

In 2020 the government said practitioners of ayurveda, the traditional system of medicine, should be allowed to perform surgery, to the horror of the medical establishment. Socially, the BJP’s strident Hindu nationalism has left the country polarised and minorities nervous. India is in the grip of a fake-news epidemic, partly due to cheap phones and data. Some dissenters have been labelled as “anti-nationals” and thrown into prison. 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. [49] He preferred playing larger-than-life characters in theatrical productions, which has influenced his political image. [50] [51] Over half of India’s 1.4 billion people are under the age of 30, and they are shaping up to be a pivotal political force in the 2024 general election and beyond, Ghosh told NBC News.

Modi repealed 1,200 obsolete laws in first three years as prime minister; 1,301 such laws had been repealed by previous governments in the previous 64 years. [244] [245] [246] Modi launched the Digital India programme with the goal of ensuring government services are available electronically, build infrastructure to provide high-speed Internet access to rural areas, boost manufacturing of electronic goods in the country, and promote digital literacy. [247] [248] Both dispute the official arguments put forward for the new building, that India’s expanding population requires a larger debating chamber than the parliament now offers, and that its 96-year-old home is worn out. “I find it perfectly all right,” says Sircar. “In India we have buildings that are 500-700 years old and still work well.”

It appears that the Second Republic and the Hindu Rashtra are already upon us, here to stay for the foreseeable future. Modi’s India is at once reminder, record, warning bell and, if we heed the lessons of history, a call to arms.Modi and the BJP have proven themselves to be fluent hypocrites on the world stage. Under the banner of anticolonialism, the party is replicating Britain’s colonial practices. Later on Friday, Biden will host his first bilateral meeting with Modi after winning the presidential election. The two leaders are expected to discuss a range of topics, including the coronavirus pandemic, climate change, to maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region.