Get to know Narendra Modi
Wednesday calls for a profile on a name you might see in the news regularly. With India’s surging cases of COVID-19, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s name has been in the headlines almost every day. Here's what you need to know.
Background:
Modi came from humble beginnings. As a child, he helped his father sell tea at a railway station, eventually running the tea stall with his brother. At university, he studied both a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in political science and a Master of Arts degree majoring in political science.
Modi started getting involved in politics as a young adult, joining political parties and eventually becoming a full-time campaigner for the RSS (a small right-wing party). He then ended up in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a major political party in India, where he moved up the party ranks over time.
Prime Minister
After holding political roles such as Chief Minister of Gujarat, Modi is now the Prime Minister of the right-wing BJP and National Democratic Alliance (NDA) as of 2014. During his 2014 election campaign, he presented himself as a strong and masculine leader, who was willing to take risks and make difficult decisions. He also focused on the corruption scandals under the previous INC government and played on the success he had as a politician who had created a high GDP growth in Gujarat.
He then won a second term in 2019 during the general election. Throughout the 2019 campaign, Modi’s opposition highlighted alleged corruption in relation to the French Government. Despite this, Modi successfully won office again.
During his time as Prime Minister, some of the major areas he has focused on include:
Economic policies such as privatisation
Centralisation of power
Modi is also very active on social media and uses it as a means to communicate with the public, using both Google Hangouts and Twitter predominantly.
Perception
Overall, Modi's approval ratings have been high since becoming Prime Minister and within India, he is considered popular. Modi is considered to be a right-wing populist and was part of the recent rise of right-wing populism all over the globe. His popularity as Chief Minister of Gujarat has also assisted with his favourable views as Prime Minister.
Despite his popularity, Modi has had his fair share of criticism too:
His Hindu nationalist beliefs have been characterised as polarising and divisive
While in his role as Chief Minister of Gujarat, he was considered complicit during the 2002 Gujarat riots
He has been criticised for the ‘backsliding of democracy’. There have been reported cases of journalists losing their roles after criticising Modi and an increased pressure on human rights groups, leading to what some believe to be the deterioration of political and civil liberties in the country.
His government introduced the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which was criticised for discrimination on the basis of religion, especially against Muslim Indians.
He has been criticised for his handling of the pandemic. Modi was particularly criticised for hosting state election rallies and letting Hindu devotees congregate for a festival. As India’s healthcare system struggles for supplies and a shortage of vaccines, Modi’s leadership has received criticism domestically.