24/05/2024: On 11 august 1979, morbi town in saurashtra was flooded out after the nearby dam on the Machchhu river broke. The biggest dam burst tragedy in history, upto 25,000 people died as the whole town went under water when the dam broke, Modi was in Chennai along with nanaji deshmukh of the deendayal research institute(DRI), an autonomous body affiliated to the RSS. On hearing the news of the large scale destruction, modi immediately rushed back to Gujarat and organized the relief operations.
1983-84, The kisan sangh units of the two states got together and urged farmers to sell their produce in cross border markets without going through the corrupt and harassing bureaucratic processes. Farmers decided to break the law in the same way as mahatma Gandhi had broken the law by making salt.
With an emphasis on Gandhi’s symbolism, the kisan sangh palnned a massive rally on 2 october 1984 in ahmedabad. More than 1 lakh farmers gathered there to protest against the government’s policies. The movement had captured people’s imagination in rural areas. It had also brought to the fore rural distress and the government’s apathy towards farmers. The anger exploded on the streets as farmers fought pitched battles with the police. In the police action, some farmers were killed and some were injured. Modi asked the cadres to seek donations from people across the state to put together a fund to support the families of those who had died in the police firing. This was a unique way of urging other people to support the cause of the farmers while also retaining the farmers stake in the movement. Which later developed a strong base in the state’s agrarian society. For the first time, the movement expanded the sangh parivar’s base in the rural areas of Gujarat and effectively enhanced its social acceptability, which was otherwise limited in the state. this formed the backdrop of modi’s transition from the RSS to the BJP in 1986-87, BJP formed in 1980 after the disintegration of the Janta party
Meanwhile, in Gujarat, particularly in ahmedabad and surat, communal riots had become a recurring feature in the 1980s. Much of the blame for creating this atmosphere of fear and violence went to the new political idiom of KHAM. KHAM stood for kshatriya, harijan, adivasi and muslim.
By june 1986 modi started attending BJP meetings informally alongside his RSS work, he continued his unofficial attachment with the party with the attitude of a learner. It was in februrary- march 1987 that his work was appreciated within the party and he was made the general secretary(organization) of the BJP’s state unit. His first test: the ahmedabad civic elections in 1987. The elections were held against the backdrop of an atmosphere that was communally charged and made hindus suspicious of the congress. This was modi’s first assignment after he formally made the transition into the BJP from the RSS.
The BJP had been a minor player in the Ahmadabad municipal corporation(AMC) elections in the past. In 1975 the BJS, the forerunner to the BJP, had won only fourteen seats in alliance with the congress(O) of morarji Desai. In 1981, its tally improved to twenty one. In 1987 modi began mobilizing the party cadre in right earnest and classified the booths in A,B and C categories: A- category booths were safe places where consolidations needed to be done, while B and C Categories required special attention to turn then into A category. Ten party workers were identified to be placed in each booth.
Meanwhile, lateef who saw himself as a sort of robin hood for the minorities during the riots, decided to contest the election from five wards as an independent candidate though he was in jail. His election symbol was lion. While he could not campaign in person, his supporters paraded a caged lion to canvass for the don. With the scars of the recent violence still fresh, this innovative campaign tactic was an attempt to exploit polarization. However it played in favour of the BJP, which promised to dispel the atmosphere of fear and insecurity among the people of Ahmadabad .
Modi and other decision makers chose to build on the party’s emerging support base by giving tickets to middle- class professionals who were not full time political workers- school teachers, doctors, lawyers.
In February 1987, when the AMC poll results started coming in the two leading parties were going neck and neck, and a hung house seemed to be on the cards.
Given the impression that non-Gujarati labourers living in the eastern parts were congress supporters, no body was expecting a dramatic turnaround in the final numbers. But when the votes were counted, all twenty-one seats went to the BJP. The BJP crossed the halfway mark, winning sixty-seven seats of the 127 seats, while congress tally went down to thirty seats. In previous election in 1981, the BJP had managed to win only thirteen seats, while the congress had fifty of the total 105 seats.
The BJP became a serious contender in Gujarat politics, having also won the municipal elections in surat, vadodara and Rajkot(where it had its first ever victory in the state in 1982).
While outsiders gave credit for this success to the party’s state president, shanker singh vagehla, and the senior most leader, keshubhai patel, the feeling within the party was, as old timers recalled to me, “modi’s entry was a good omen.”
The AMC also came up with the innovative idea of setting up an electric crematorium and providing free service for funerals. This step touched the lives of the poor, who found it unaffordable to conduct the last rites of their dead in line with traditional rituals. In less than a year after elections, the AMC emerged as a role model for good governance. Though handicapped by financial constraints and hurdles created by the chaudhary government, its efficient administrative work and sensitivity for people’s issues stood out as an exemplary political model that could be replicated elsewhere in the state.
Modi now set his sights on the 1989 general election and the state assembly election of 1990. After the AMC victory in 1987, modi planned to take out a series of rallies all over the state. He began with a nyaya yatra, rally for justice, aimed at making people aware of their entitlements when the state was reeling under serious drought conditions. He asked party workers to prepare a list of entitlements, to make farmers aware of their rights. The yatra was planned in such a way as to cover the entire state and ensure that farmers’ issues were raised in public meetings. Events provided a platform for a kind of jansunvai, a social audit of the government’s relief measures.
Modi kept mobilizing the cadres and encouraging them perpetually to connect with the people and their issues. Such programmes were planned even at the micro level, down to talukas and panchayats, to keep the cadre always ready.
Modi formed a standing “ working group” of 25-30 leaders who started meeting every month to review the activities and plan ahead. Modi and other leaders launched a series of abhyasvarga, or study sessions, across the state, attended by thousands of party workers.
Modi’s rigorous method of co-opting the marginalized social groups, the newly emerging(neo) middle class in urban areas and some 60 lakh non-gujaratis overstretched the party’s resources and caused considerable consternation.
In the state’s politics, the key actor in the anti- congress space ahead of the state election was chimanbhai patel. The BJP central leadership decided to forge an alliance with chimanbhai and his janta dal, and also agreed to his demand for more seats, making the BJP a junior partner. Modi was averse to the alliance a he was confident that the BJP would win on its own.
Modi discovered a painter and coined a slogan, “ ab toh bus, bhajapa” Modi realized that the slogan would find resonance with people who were fed up with the successive congress regimes in the state.
Modi decided to introduce a new political idiom that could describe the BJP as being distinctively different from other parties. Before the state assembly election in 1990. He planned a state wide massive mobilization of the BJP cadre in ahmedabad. All aspirants for assembly seats in the state were asked to come to ahmedabad in a vehicle decked up as a rath and decorated with party flags and slogans. Hundered of vehicles improvised as raths did a round of the state for a week and converged in ahmedabad on the same day. Insiders say that this massive show of strength was a brilliant strategy to overawe not only the electorate but also potential allies, who until then, had underestimated the BJP’s popularity.
In the lok sabha election of 1989, the BJP entered into an alliance with the janta dal at the last moment, agreeing to contest twelve seats, vacating the rest fourteen for v.p. singh’s party. V.P. singh had emerged as a charismatic leader and become the prime minister, but in Gujarat his party won eleven out of fourteen seats, whereas the BJP won all twelve seats it had contested. The congress was reduced to three seats. The BJP thus emerged as the number one party.
When the time came for the assembly election, the BJP and janta dal were expected to join hands. But BJP this time was bound to insist on an equal share, if not more, eventually, the BJP and janta dal agreed to contest sixty eight seats each(out of the 182 seats) in alliance, while keeping their fight in the rest of the seats( forty six) friendly. Chimanbhai’s janta dal won seventy seats, with The BJP nearly equal, with sixty eight seats, and the congress reduced to thirty three.
Modi was tasked to make preparations for the Gujarat yatra. Its route was planned in a way to cover the maximum number of tribal and rural areas, in order to attract those social groups that were not yet associated with the parivar.
In 1995, when the assembly election was due, the BJP had successfully launched a vigorous campaign on the ‘Betrayal theme’ and projected itself as a victim of the self seekers of non BJP politics. Kesubhai patel emerged as the BJP’s face for the chief ministerial post.
Particularly helped modi were two mass mobilization programmes, the ayodhya rath yatra of advani and the subsequent ekta yatra of murli manohar joshi. In the former, modi’s role was limited to Gujarat, but for the latter he was given the charge of coordination for the full route from kanyakumari to Kashmir . in 1991, soon after the return of militancy in jammu and Kashmir, joshi’s yatra was aimed at unfurling the Indian flag at lal chowk in Srinagar, the stronghold of separatists and militants. This experiment gave him exposure as an organizer at the national level, and educated him about the vulnerabilities and strengths of the party all over india.
When the campaign reached jammu and the government restricted its movement further. Modi made elaborate backup plans, and asked a group of senior party leaders and committed workers to stay put in jammu while himself preparing to take along ninety odd leaders to Srinagar. All participants were given a minute to minute schedule to prevent the possibility of any glitch.
During the late 90’s in Gujarat, when BJP was still setting up its base, modi built a rapport with leading seers and religious institutions. Modi built a cadre base which was highly trained and motivated. At the same time, he did not hesitate to co-opt eminent personalities and celebrities from different walks of life and align them to the BJP’s political goal- to bring about a change in the culture of governance. In the election held in march 1995, the BJP secured 121 seats, leaving the congress way behind at forty- five
In exile with few friends and well wishers in the party, modi began his new but not so propitious terrain: Haryana and himachal Pradesh. His background as some one literally ousted from Gujarat, was to this assignment even more difficult.
BJP workers at the district levels recall plenty of stories of how modi insisted on having a permanent party office in every district, and wanted the offices to be equipped with computers and other modern communication gadgets. Modi also encouraged the cadre to get skilled in using computers, to fill in data about the organizational structure. This was the beginning by their strengths in order to deploy the at short notice to realize their full potential. The idea behind all these efforts was to bring the entire organizational machinery in sync without delay.
Modi focused particularly on women in the state(Haryana) in a tactical manner to win over this section. He could sense the deep-seated prejudice against women in the male- dominated state and found it convenient to appeal to their political aspirations. At a training camp in rohtak modi coined the slogan ‘matrutva hi netrutva’ linking the qualities and skills of motherhood with those of leadership.
The manner in which he started projecting the BJP as a pro women party in the state was quite enstructive. In the 1999 lok sabha election, modi made it a point to promote women as candidates. He asked the BJP’s state unit leadership to look for women who could win elections. Though senior leaders were not happy with move, some suggested the name of sudha yadav, the widow of sukhbir singh yadav, a deputy commandant of the border security force who had been killed in the kargil war just a few months before. Manohar lal khattar(who became the chief minister in 2014) and other leaders were sent to find out if she had an inclination to contest the election. The initially found her resistant to the idea, but after two or three visits and a great deal of persuasion, sudha yadav agreed to contest the polls from mahendragadh(now part of the gurugram constituency) and went on to win. A simple housewife was turned into a leader, and she has built a successful political career since.
Modi organized a function in gurugram to mobilize funds for the election campaign for a war widow. The first contribution was made by modi himself, and he said his mother had sent him the money from her meagre savings. He then urged others to follow suit. Within an hour, a significant amount of Rs.7.5 lakh was collected for sudha yadav’s campaign. The whole event acquired emotional overtones when another kargil martyr widow hugged sudha and both cried holding each other. Given the fact that the state sends a sizeable chunk of youth to the Indian army, sudha yadav’s nomination as a candidate was a recognition of the state’s militaristic tradition. At the same time, the event was intended to dispel any stigma attached to widowhood , which is often not looked at kindly by the traditionalists in society. There is no doubt that modi effected a radical change in the party’s organizational structure in Haryana.
Modi introduced two-day training sessions, for which workers were to stay at the same place. Modi too would stay at the same place and interact with them over breakfast , lunch and dinner. For ordinary workers, it was a great opportunity to interact with the top leadership of the party and establish a two-way communication. Modi’s initiative of inducting new workers from various social groups and efforts to institutionalize the party functioning was frowned upon. Modi enthused party workers by keeping them engaged in various programmes planned for them around the year.
Modi devised a new strategy to build local leadership from the new generation of party leaders by holding training sessions all across the state, even at smaller places. These sessions would often last two days, with special focus on how to strengthen the organizational network. Legislators were asked to identify powerful organizations like the state government employees union or traders union, and to interact with them and learn about their problems at first hand. They were told to visit different districts and ask people about their grievances. These visits were announced in advance through newspapers to enable people to come in large numbers. Legislators were told to spend the entire day with people at their place of stay, circuit houses or guest houses, and listen to complaints and raise them in assembly.
He constituted a group of twenty odd people who were not office bearers of the party and tasked them to trace the party’s journey and its possible future. This group met in chintpurni village of una district and discussed threadbare the strategies to be adopted to strengthen the party.
It was in this context that modi was given charge of Madhya Pradesh with the 1998 assembly election round the corner . he held a series of training sessions in the state to mobilize the cadre with a purpose. He emphasis on training for cadre was so intense and focused that he soon acquired the nickname of headmaster among the state party veterans.
Modi’s innovative ways to prepare the party cadre for the election were driven by the singular message of ‘fighting to win’. He introduced new units in the party: cells in charge of information technology, media and civil aviation(the last being in charge of managing travel logistics of leaders during the campaingn). He motivated the cadre to launch simultaneous campaign in twenty-five-odd places to raise the pitch of the campaign and take adversaries by surprise. He also educated workers on how to spread the message of good work done by the party. Don’t panic, fight without fear’ was his advice for the party workers.
In Madhya Pradesh,
modi realized that politics was mainly a contesting ground between upper caste
leaders from the congress and the BJP. There was scope for expansion among
specific social groups- not only the SCs and OBCs, but also STs-especially in
large trible-dominated areas of what was to become Chhattisgarh.
Modi mobilized the
party cadre in large numbers to concentrate on the areas dominated by scheduled
castes and scheduled tribes. As for tribals, particularly in Chhattisgarh, the
RSS had developed a strong base through the network of the vanvasi kalyan
ashrams(VKAs)
Modi helped coin two
slogans, ‘ek vote mein do pradesh’ and Chhattisgarh , aage barh. These catchy
slogans were intended to capture people’s imagination in Chhattisgarh, which
was struggling for an identity of its own. At national level, the Vajpayee- led
government had promised the creation of three new states, including
Chhattisgarh.
The massive earthquake that rocked Gujarat, with its epicenter in the kachchh district, on 26/01/2001. Leading cities and towns of kachchh, as well as the neighbouring saurashtra region, were razed to the ground. Effects were felt even in ahmedabad, where several buildings came down like a pack of cards- a school here, a high rise apartment block there. The total casualties were estimated to be slightly above 20,000 through unofficial estimates put the toll far higher.
Modi rushed from delhi to bhuj and initiated measures to meet the situation. Modi should have been the obvious choice for leading the operations in the state. But keshubhai chose to cold-shoulder him instead. Even the central leadership- primarily prime minister Vajpayee and home minister advani- avoided pushing his case to lead relief efforts. Advani who represented the gandhinagar lok sabha constituency, was hesitant to restore modi’s role in Gujarat politics despite his position a the BJP general secretary. The reason was obvious, keshubhai had turned against modi. A section of senior state leaders, like the former chief minister suresh Mehta and union ministers kashiram rana and harin pathak, also feared that his presence would ultimately eclipse them.
Patel tendered his resignation on 3/10/2001, modi arrived in gandhinagar two days later. Modi greeted each of the mediapersons by name, even asking health updates from some, showing he was never out of touch with his home state despite his long time absence.
Modi began by meticulously picking up the issues that needed to be addressed at the governance level. To restore confidence among people, he launched a massive rehabilition programme in the earthquake hit kachchh and saurashtra, and started rebuilding the bhuj district headquarters from scratch. He channelized all energies of the government, the party and society to rebuild bhuj, like the proverbial phoenix rising from the ashes. The reconstruction of bhuj was intended to send across a definite message of restoring people’s confidence in the government.
To rebuild kachchh and other quake- effected parts, funds were needed in large amounts, and modi turned to the corporate sector. In October 2001, the state government organized a meeting with industry leaders, ‘global Gujarat, resurgent gujarat’modi’s penchant for communication was at work here: ‘global’ appealed to the large diaspora of gujaratis abroad, and resurgent was the call to build the state a new under a new leadership. In February 2002, yet another resurgent Gujarat conference was organized with the help of the Gujarat chamber of commerce and industry and the ministries of the union government. Industry titans pledged all help to kachchh in particular and to the state in general, with investments in new economic activities, in turn, modi assured them complete ease of doing business, eliminating red tape.
Officers who worked with him closely back then testify that he is and incredibly fast learner. All district collectors were to attend a conference over two days, and the new chief minister was invited as the chief guest. Modi accepted the invitation, on the condition that he would not be a participant but only an observer. Taking a seat in the back of the auditorium, he allowed the conference to go on its own flow. Modi tried to understand the manner in which the district collectors and senior officers interacted with one another on the issue of governance and how issues of even village and taluka levels were discussed and resolved. At the end of the meeting, modi issued clear instructions to all officers: ‘I m a like a tourist and will travel all across the state to learn administration but also to monitor progress. Please do not make elaborate arrangement for me as I will stay in the circuit house or state guest house’.
One of modi’s innovative initiatives in governance was organizing a series of training camps for state employees along with their senior most bosses. Looking back on these training sessions, a senior bureaucrat recalls that all the servants of the people, right from minister to secretary and junior staff, were asked to board state run buses to reach the venue, no private transport allowed, because everyone was equal.
During lunch and dinner, a junior officer could offer suggestions to the secretary or the minister and all would interact freely in an informal atmosphere, unmindful of the hierarchies. The chief minister, too would chat with everyone and ask them about their problems and their senior officials.
An innovative idea of “samras gram” launched on 11 october, jayaprakash narayan’s birth anniversary. Under the scheme the state would give financial rewards to those villages which would choose their pradhans and sarpanchs of the gram panchayat by consensus that is without elections. The aim was to promote harmony and avoid conflict . while elections are usually fought by parties with their symbols, the panchayat law had kept parties out of village level elections. Modi’s understanding was that this was intended to maintain the family like spirit of village communities and avoiding elections would promote the same spirit.
Another novelty in the budget was the ‘panch gram mitra
yojana . according to it, five persons would be identified in each village and
would devote themselves exclusively to five key themes: agriculture, education,
health care, development and people’s welfare. This team of five people usually
youngsters, in every village had the potential of creating a parallel
organizational network to promote the government’s image among other
initiatives, the state gifted bicycles
to school going girls in those areas where the literacy rate was as abysmally
low as below 25 percent. Gujarat’s female literacy rate in 2002 was 57.8
percent. The scheme was later extended to the whole state. By census 2011, the
female literacy rate in the state had touched 69.68 percent.
Modi launched a slew
of initiatives under the name of “beti bachao” to correct the skewed sex ratio
and attend to the issue of growing malnutrition among children. For the first
time, the state machinery was mobilized to celebrate the birth of the girl
child. In this programme the birth of girls was celebrated in all villages to
educate masses on the importance of girls in the family.
The initiative was
supplemented by festivals on the opening day of the academic year to celebrate
girls entering the school for the first time. Such fairs and fests were not
just for optics: census 2011 was to show a 13 percent rise over 2001 in the
literacy rate of girls and 29.77 percent decrease in the school dropout ratio.
Another scheme for reaching out to pregnant women, giving them nutritional diets and educating them about the importance of taking proper nutrition for the growth of the foetus. Most of these programmes were held as festivals in which the entire bureaucracy participated and the whole society came together as a major stakeholder.
Modi injected enthusiasm and over five years even as the supreme cogave a green signal to the narmada project the state built more than 1 lakh check dams and boribunds with people’s participation and farmers groups contributed Rs.250- 300 crore. According to an Indian institute of management ahmedabad study, thanks to the scheme groundwater and wells in the region were recharged and about 20 lakh beghas of land could be protected against drought. The cost of typical check dam was Rs.1,58,000, whereas it delivered total benefits worth Rs. 2,51,582 in three years. In some villages people had to buy water supplied through tankers for ten to eleven months a year at the cost of Rs. 200 to Rs.250 per months. Check dams curtailed this period by six months.
The modi government decided to restrict power supply to farmers to only four hours. At the same time they were asked to pay user charges for electricity. This was a clear departure from the established norms. His concerns were adequately outlined in the budget 2003-04.
In second stint as the chief minister, modi launched a pioneering move in power reforms, ‘jyoti gram yojana’ which became a model for the rest of the country. Under this scheme, round the clock power supply of one phase electricity for domestic consumption was assured to each household/industrial consumption. Since electricity for domestic consumption. The bifurcation of feeders enabled power companies to raise the bill according to the user’s actual consumption. Also the tariffs for farmers were tripled and in 2004 penalties were slapped on around 60,000 defaulters.
Gujarat was well on its way to lead the country: its economy grew by 15.5 percent in 2003-04, up from 10.15 percent in 2002-03, and nearly double what it was during keshubhai’s last year, 7.75 percent in 2001-02.
In 2004 modi launched
initiative to co-op some sections like the SCs and STs, on a large scale. The
government sponsored the publication of Dr. B.R. ambedkar’s writing in
gujarati. This was accompanied by various schemes to promote education and
provide financial assistance to those living on the margins.
Gujarat topped the list of states in terms of reduction of poverty in 2005. The planning commission pegged the rate of poverty in Gujarat at 14.07 percent, against the national average of 26.10 percent.
Few were surprised with the results of the local body elections in 2003 and 2005. All the six municipal corporations were again under the BJP’ belt. The party still had a lot to cover in the district and taluka panchayats in the rural side, but it still had an upper hand over the congress.
In 2006, yet another happy story emerged from the state. The Gujarat electricity board, which had been incurring chronic losses, turned around and posted a profit of Rs.49 crore for the first time.
To make Gujarat a finance hub, like London and Singapore, he mooted the concept of creating a new city near gandhinagar and named it Gujarat international financial tec-city(GIFT). GIFT took off as an international finance hub, and nearly all leading financial firms and markets have opened offices in this ultra- modern complex that serves as a template for the central government’s smart city initiative of 2004.
Modi later attracted
Tata motor’s nano car project from west Bengal to Gujarat set an example for
proactive policies to win over the industry. Till 2010 gujarat had got
permission to set up nearly 60 SEZs to facilitate the industry to grow. the
state continued to attract massive investments, the size of many small states
full budget. It secured MoUs worth Rs.12 lakh crore at the vibrant Gujarat
global investors summit of 2009, in which 600 representatives from forty- six
nations participated.
In a deposition before the special investigation team(SIT), constituted by the supreme court, modi was subjected to an inquisition that lasted several hours at the CBI office in gandhinagar in march 2010. He was questioned particularly in connection with a case of communal violence in which a former MP from congress had been killed. Modi was eventually given a clean chit by the SIT. In one of the encounter cases, gujarat’s minister of state for home, amit shah had to not only resign but was also jailed by the investigative agency, the CBI, apparently at the insistence of the centre. Though the CBI could not produce evidence of his involvement in the killing, through his incarceration the UPA strategists were trying to mount pressure on shah to manufacture false evidence against modi in order to stymie the latter’s rising popularity across india. Since shah steadfastly stood his ground, the strategy did not work.
The Malegaon blasts of 2006 were linked to an unknown organization called abhinav bharat, which drew its strength either from the sangh parivar’s organizations or some religious bodies having close association with RSS. This was clearly intended to curb the growth of the RSS by branding it as a terrorist organization. An important functionary of the RSS indresh kumar, was referred to as the man behind planning and organizing terror acts.
In march 2015, party president amit shah orchestrated a campaign to enroll new primary members. The response was more enthusiastic than anticipated, as about 1 crore names were added to the ranks within a week. That month the party announced it had 8.80 crore members on its register. It also celebrated the feat of having become the largest political organization in the world, overtaking the communist party of china. Similar membership drive would be launched after the 2019 victory too, adding some 7 crore members. Today the BJP has upwards of 18 crore members. That is just over 13% of the country’s population. As the party president J.P. nadda, puts it the BJP has more workers than the population of any country except the eight most populous countries in the world.
In Gujarat, modi frequently announced welfare programmes with grand events at village, block and district levels by mobilizing people’s representatives to raise the awareness level among the masses.
The pradhan mantri jan dhan yojana, aimed at making banking inclusive, taking banking services to every citizen, and thus bringing the socially and economically marginalized in the mainstream political economy. Within 2 years nearly 26 crore people got connected to the banking sector with new accounts.
What is particularly noteworthy is the adaptability and readiness of modi to turn the new political situation to his advantage. Having realized that nitish kumar still commanded respect among the electorate, modi persuaded the BJP to keep a close watch on the situation and forge an alliance with the JD(U) if its mahagathbandhan with the RJD broke up. Nitish kumar finally decided to part ways with the RJD and submitted his resignation as chief minister on 26/07/2017. Within three hours, modi directed the party leadership to work out an alliance with nitish kumar and run the coalition government. Sushil kumar modi the BJP’s top leader in bihar along with party MLAs, drove to the CM’s residence and extended their support to him. The next morning nitish kumar was again sworn in as chief minister, with sushil kumar modi as his deputy.
The practice of ‘instant triple talaq’ in the muslim community had been deemed unconstitutional by the supreme court in 2017. That year, the modi government had brought a bill to end it, but it could not be passed for lack of numbers in the upper house of parliament. On 30 july, however, the government pushed the bill ahead and got it passed too, amid walkouts.
On 5 august, home minister shah tabled a resolution in parliament to revoke article 370 of the constitution and thus the special status to the state of jammu and Kashmir.
The government went a step ahead and reorganized the state into two union territories-separating the ladakh region.
On 12 december, parliament passed and amendment to the citizenship act, granting legal status to migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who had entered india before 2014. The crucial parameter was that this relief was offered to hindu, sikh, jain, parsi, Buddhist and Christian migrants who had been forced to flee after religious persecution.
Imposition of lockdown across the country at the short notice of barely four hours- was much debated for its timing and scale but not for intent. And nor its results. The nation not only supported but welcomed such a drastic measure in a replay of demonetization. It was met with no political opposition, and within no time a fifth of humankind had willingly decided to shelter at home. Some expressed the fear that chaos would ensure, but it proved un true.
The machinery of governance, now well oiled, ensured that the life of the nation continued. Modi helped the nation see opportunity in the crises, and he gave the call for an atmanirbhar bharat. The only set back was the mass migration of labourers from industrial hubs to their homes, but the government was quick to offer them a helping hand at the earliest.
India was going into a war against virus with two handicaps. First, the country’s high population density and cultural diversity. Second, its public health infrastructure, which had obvious shortcomings as expected in a developing country. Yet, the nation put up a brave face and found solutions from medical supplies to the setting up of health care centres overnight and the manufacture of indigenous vaccines. The largest lockdown in human history was followed by the largest vaccination exercise in January 2021.
Modi would not stand on prestige despite his image of a strong leader was evident when he withdrew the three bills on agriculture reforms in late 2021. The moment he realized that the bills were being taken as a pretext to foment a subversive movement not only within india but also by external forces, modi declared his intention to withdraw the legislative move in the larger interest of the nation. Through this story we(storynowenglish dot com) extend respect modi for his never before strategies and want to request youth of this country to learn new strategies from political history of modi.
Myron weiner, in his book party politics in india: the development of a multi-party system(1957), writes ‘the leader has 3 key functions. He is first the compromiser of factional disputes. Second, he is the source of prestige to the members of the party. And third he is an absolute source for the articulation of values held by the group, and he may, as Gandhi did, articulate a new set of values.” Modi it can be argued has performed all three functions with dexterity without losing sight of building the party organization
Source: after
research from different online sources, finally matched the whole story with
content in a book name: The architect of the new BJP- by ajay singh
Notice for public: Nothing
is cut copy past from anywhere in whole story, advice not to copy but can take
this story as sources for further publications on any platform(including
digital, print and electronic media) for educating public for contributing in
future projects in different fields. So India can better grow in different sectors.
Publishing this story
on 24/05/2024 cos today PM modi is in Punjab so we think this is best time to
educate Punjab people about political journey of modi and about his effective
strategies in politics
Remember this is not
any biography, this story is not for praise anyone and not for defame any one
its only purpose is educate new generation.
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kindly verify facts from different sources.
Picture is in story
taken from internet but not used for commercial purposes.
