The story of Modi's rise from humble beginnings to the office of prime minister is, in any case, a fascinating one.
It is interwoven with the complex historical and cultural fabric of India of which he, as a nationalist, is so immensely proud. I have done my best to make the story accessible to those outside India who want to understand the man and the political environment in which he operates. I hope Indian readers will bear with me if sometimes my explanations seem obvious or unnecessary. There is nothing more irritating than the tourist who spends all his time comparing what he sees to life back home, but I'm afraid a little of that is essential in explaining the whirlwind that hit India with such force in the months leading up to Modi's historic victory. Vvhile the western media did, of course, report on the campaign, it was covered with none of the minute detail with which American or British elections are dissected.
The lasting memories for even a fairly attentive television viewer in the west would have been of a crushing defeat for the Gandhis. a new prime minister who was supposed to be a bit of a right-wing extremist and, Oh, wasn't there something about him selling tea as a boy? A chai wala? Yes, that was it.
The narne Bharatiya Janata Party translates simply as the Indian People's Party. Its motto is •country first, party second, self last'. Yet, from the overwhelming volume of photos, images and slogans that drenched the country in the months running up to the general election of 2014. you could have been forgiven for thinking it was now, 'Modi first. Modi second, Modi last'. It was an unashamedly. some might say shamelessly. presidential campaign, and the issue dominating from day One to the announcement Of the results on 16 May was Modi_ And, in common with all presidential campaigns, his record. his character. and even his upbringing were endlessly raked over. He knew this would happen. It was, as we shall see. a very conscious decision on his part to make it a campaign based almost entirely on his personal capacity to lead the nation in a different direction. And yet, while making himself the issue. he did his best to maintain that he was a man without personal ambition. 'l am a person who never dreamt Of becoming anything,' he told a TV audience as the campaign entered its final stage. •You should always dream of doing something.' He carne from such a poor background. he said, that his mother would have given away free sweets in the village if he had
succeeded even in becoming a schoolteacher. 'It's the blessings of people in a democracy that can decide the future of a person. In a democracy, no one can decide his future. Even today, I have dreams Of doing things but not one dream Of becoming anything. ' Modi is India's great communicator, on a par with Ronald Reagan, but when he does 'self-effacing' he is at his least convincing. He is as egotistical as any politician I have ever met, and his conversation is littered with references to himself in the third person. 'In all comers of the country,' he told me, 'they believed Modi was the only hope and wanted to see him win.' The highly personalised campaign profoundly irritated some of the BJP's grandees, They felt sidelined, which is hardly surprising because they had been. And they believed a myth had been created around Modi, turning him into some kind of all-conquering Superman, able to fly without support. In his defence, much of the hype around him was generated by the genuine passion of his supporters, although he certainly did nothing to discourage it, And when it was all over, he thanked them and the many thousands of party foot soldiers for their help in getting him elected. His most persuasive argument for why it had turned into a 'Vote Modi', rather than Vote BJP', campaign was that the country was crying out for leadership
'Past elections have shown that the Indian culture is such that people have tremendous faith and trust in the individual. People wanted clarity about who the leading person will be and I was seeing this question being asked in every meeting I attended and was hearing vociferous chants, of 'Give us a trusted name not a party name".' Both propositions have the merit Of being true.
I have no doubt Modi took great satisfaction in hearing his name chanted by vast crowds day in and day out and in seeing his carefully crafted image whichever way he looked, And, in a country cynical about party campaign promises, it also happened to be good politics to promote one man as the vanguard of change. TO work, however, it had to be the right man with the right story and a record Of achievement that would stand the test Of scrutiny during a long and bitter contest. In that sense, the result speaks for itself. The Modi brand did more than survive the campaign, it came out of it stronger, toughened not weakened by the attacks of its detractors. But it was not always obvious that Narendra Modi would be an asset rather than a liability to his party
His opponents. including some within his own party, thought they could use his unusual and sometimes controversial life story to undermine him, but they never succeeded in doing SO. The biggest Own goal Of the campaign came in January 2014, when one Of the Congress Party's leaders decided it was a good idea to refer to Modi's childhood days as a chai wala, or tea vendor, in order to humiliate him (see Chapter Nine). The remark rebounded on a party that was already perceived as elitist and run by a family that had never known what it meant to be poor By contrast, Modi's humble beginnings were an important part Of a narrative that used his own transformation through hard work and dedication to tell a story of what India itself could achieve if it chose to do so. His family with no special privileges, and his refusal to use his position of power to benefit them, was a positive asset on the campaign trail. It showed not only that he understood poverty, but also that he was personally incorruptible.
•In my type Of job,' he told 'you dedicate yourself to your work. We grew up in a joint family with shared responsibilities, and learnt from each other how to live simply and with very little. My mother even today lives in a small eight foot by eight foot room.' According to his biographers, when he was six he would help his father sell tea to passengers whenever a train came into the town station. 'After school Narendra would race to his father's tea stall as if working there was the excitement he had been looking forward to all day long and nothing in the world was more fulfilling than serving tea to railway passengers: "l was in the train compartment, the small boy who used to serve tea, and take the money" As a rule, Modi chooses his words with extreme care. 'l come from a poor family. I have seen poverty,' he said in his Red Fort speech on Independence Day. It is of no great value to argue, as some do, that poverty is relative and millions Of Indians grow up with a lot less to eat and in far worse living conditions than the young Narendra Modi. When he told the country that he detested poverty because he had seen it at first hand, he was telling the truth, and no attempt by his opponents to take
that away from him stood the slightest chance of success.
He was born in September 1950 in the small town Of Vadnagar in the north of the present-day state Of Gujarat. India had gained its independence from Britain just three years previously and Mahatma Gandhi, also a native Of Gujarat, had been assassinated the following year, in January 1948 while Gandhi was born into a comfortably off family of India's merchant caste, Modi was an OBC. or 'Other Backward Class'. Officially OBCs are classified as socially and educationally backward' but they are far from being the lowest Stratum Of society. with many castes. including Dalits, previously known better as 'the untouchables', below them. He was the third Of six children and the family lived in a three-room, single-storey house built Of brick and The most bizarre publication to have been produced by Modi's supporters during the campaign was a 45-page comic book called Bal Narendra — Childhood Stories Of Narendra Modi. It was never officially endorsed and soon vent out of print, but nevertheless it caused quite a stir with its catalogue of larger-than-life deeds of heroism and selflessness by the fearless young boy. By this account he really was too good to be true. He rescues a drowning boy and a trapped bird. swims in crocodile-infested waters. stands up to school bullies. dutifully attends the local temple and cares daily for his siblings and parents. His mother must have adored him. 'He was a perfectionist and liked his clothes clean and crispy So he would always fold them carefully once they were dry,' according to one caption. Gandhi described salt as 'the only condiment Of the poor', and much Of the media choose to take the comic book's claims with a very large pinch Of the Mahatma's favourite additive. The publication did, however, encourage journalists to visit Vadnagar and see how the young Modi was actually remembered by those who knew him; the Times Of India turned up Some fascinating insights. 'Modi's childhood friends are certain that he was destined to make history,' the paper reported. 'Once when we were returning from school, we met an astrologer and showed Our palms to him,' according to Nagji Desai, now a local leader of the Congress Party. We were all keen to know what the future held in store for us. While the astrologer did not say anything great for us, he told Narendrabhai that he would either become a revered saint or a big political leader.
We even started poking fun at Narendrabhai by calling him rajneta (politician).' Another school friend, using the same suffix, bhai (brother'), as a mark of respect, told the paper, 'Narendrabhai would also read Our palms and rue the fact that we had such a bleak future while he was destined to move around in big cars.' As for the crocodile-infested waters, the Times of India says they disappeared from the lake close to where Modi was born decades ago. But they were still there when he was a boy. When asked about swimming with them, Modi denied that by doing so he was misbehaving. •l was brave, not naughty. There was a pond in my village and I loved to swim in that pond. I even had to wash my clothes there. So one day I picked up a crocodile baby and took it home, Later on I even took it to school and my teachers were very upset.' Most Of the time, however, it seems his teachers were satisfied with his behaviour and work record. He was not an exceptional student, but in those days he was a voracious reader. There was early evidence of the theatrical side that has stood him in such good stead in his subsequent political career. Prahlad Patel. who
was his Sanskrit teacher, told one interviewer he was 'only an average student. But he showed keen interest in debates and theatre. I set up the debating club at the school, and I remember Narendra was among the regular students in the club. Although he would eventually complete a master's degree in political science through a correspondence course at Gujarat University at the age of 33, school failed to keep the attention of a boy who was clearly restless and searching for his role in life. His oldest brother, Sombhai Modi, told the magazine The Caravan: 'Narendra always wanted to do something different. Something more than what we did on a daily routine at home and school.' Modi would later join the National Cadet Corps (NCC), but the organisation which gave his life its true purpose and helped define him, for better or worse, for the rest of his life was the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh_ The RSS had a greater impact than anything else on the character of the man and on the politics of the candidate for prime minister more than forty years later. It is worth putting Modi's life-story on hold briefly in order to understand it better.
It is interwoven with the complex historical and cultural fabric of India of which he, as a nationalist, is so immensely proud. I have done my best to make the story accessible to those outside India who want to understand the man and the political environment in which he operates. I hope Indian readers will bear with me if sometimes my explanations seem obvious or unnecessary. There is nothing more irritating than the tourist who spends all his time comparing what he sees to life back home, but I'm afraid a little of that is essential in explaining the whirlwind that hit India with such force in the months leading up to Modi's historic victory. Vvhile the western media did, of course, report on the campaign, it was covered with none of the minute detail with which American or British elections are dissected.
The lasting memories for even a fairly attentive television viewer in the west would have been of a crushing defeat for the Gandhis. a new prime minister who was supposed to be a bit of a right-wing extremist and, Oh, wasn't there something about him selling tea as a boy? A chai wala? Yes, that was it.
The narne Bharatiya Janata Party translates simply as the Indian People's Party. Its motto is •country first, party second, self last'. Yet, from the overwhelming volume of photos, images and slogans that drenched the country in the months running up to the general election of 2014. you could have been forgiven for thinking it was now, 'Modi first. Modi second, Modi last'. It was an unashamedly. some might say shamelessly. presidential campaign, and the issue dominating from day One to the announcement Of the results on 16 May was Modi_ And, in common with all presidential campaigns, his record. his character. and even his upbringing were endlessly raked over. He knew this would happen. It was, as we shall see. a very conscious decision on his part to make it a campaign based almost entirely on his personal capacity to lead the nation in a different direction. And yet, while making himself the issue. he did his best to maintain that he was a man without personal ambition. 'l am a person who never dreamt Of becoming anything,' he told a TV audience as the campaign entered its final stage. •You should always dream of doing something.' He carne from such a poor background. he said, that his mother would have given away free sweets in the village if he had
succeeded even in becoming a schoolteacher. 'It's the blessings of people in a democracy that can decide the future of a person. In a democracy, no one can decide his future. Even today, I have dreams Of doing things but not one dream Of becoming anything. ' Modi is India's great communicator, on a par with Ronald Reagan, but when he does 'self-effacing' he is at his least convincing. He is as egotistical as any politician I have ever met, and his conversation is littered with references to himself in the third person. 'In all comers of the country,' he told me, 'they believed Modi was the only hope and wanted to see him win.' The highly personalised campaign profoundly irritated some of the BJP's grandees, They felt sidelined, which is hardly surprising because they had been. And they believed a myth had been created around Modi, turning him into some kind of all-conquering Superman, able to fly without support. In his defence, much of the hype around him was generated by the genuine passion of his supporters, although he certainly did nothing to discourage it, And when it was all over, he thanked them and the many thousands of party foot soldiers for their help in getting him elected. His most persuasive argument for why it had turned into a 'Vote Modi', rather than Vote BJP', campaign was that the country was crying out for leadership
'Past elections have shown that the Indian culture is such that people have tremendous faith and trust in the individual. People wanted clarity about who the leading person will be and I was seeing this question being asked in every meeting I attended and was hearing vociferous chants, of 'Give us a trusted name not a party name".' Both propositions have the merit Of being true.
I have no doubt Modi took great satisfaction in hearing his name chanted by vast crowds day in and day out and in seeing his carefully crafted image whichever way he looked, And, in a country cynical about party campaign promises, it also happened to be good politics to promote one man as the vanguard of change. TO work, however, it had to be the right man with the right story and a record Of achievement that would stand the test Of scrutiny during a long and bitter contest. In that sense, the result speaks for itself. The Modi brand did more than survive the campaign, it came out of it stronger, toughened not weakened by the attacks of its detractors. But it was not always obvious that Narendra Modi would be an asset rather than a liability to his party
His opponents. including some within his own party, thought they could use his unusual and sometimes controversial life story to undermine him, but they never succeeded in doing SO. The biggest Own goal Of the campaign came in January 2014, when one Of the Congress Party's leaders decided it was a good idea to refer to Modi's childhood days as a chai wala, or tea vendor, in order to humiliate him (see Chapter Nine). The remark rebounded on a party that was already perceived as elitist and run by a family that had never known what it meant to be poor By contrast, Modi's humble beginnings were an important part Of a narrative that used his own transformation through hard work and dedication to tell a story of what India itself could achieve if it chose to do so. His family with no special privileges, and his refusal to use his position of power to benefit them, was a positive asset on the campaign trail. It showed not only that he understood poverty, but also that he was personally incorruptible.
•In my type Of job,' he told 'you dedicate yourself to your work. We grew up in a joint family with shared responsibilities, and learnt from each other how to live simply and with very little. My mother even today lives in a small eight foot by eight foot room.' According to his biographers, when he was six he would help his father sell tea to passengers whenever a train came into the town station. 'After school Narendra would race to his father's tea stall as if working there was the excitement he had been looking forward to all day long and nothing in the world was more fulfilling than serving tea to railway passengers: "l was in the train compartment, the small boy who used to serve tea, and take the money" As a rule, Modi chooses his words with extreme care. 'l come from a poor family. I have seen poverty,' he said in his Red Fort speech on Independence Day. It is of no great value to argue, as some do, that poverty is relative and millions Of Indians grow up with a lot less to eat and in far worse living conditions than the young Narendra Modi. When he told the country that he detested poverty because he had seen it at first hand, he was telling the truth, and no attempt by his opponents to take
that away from him stood the slightest chance of success.
He was born in September 1950 in the small town Of Vadnagar in the north of the present-day state Of Gujarat. India had gained its independence from Britain just three years previously and Mahatma Gandhi, also a native Of Gujarat, had been assassinated the following year, in January 1948 while Gandhi was born into a comfortably off family of India's merchant caste, Modi was an OBC. or 'Other Backward Class'. Officially OBCs are classified as socially and educationally backward' but they are far from being the lowest Stratum Of society. with many castes. including Dalits, previously known better as 'the untouchables', below them. He was the third Of six children and the family lived in a three-room, single-storey house built Of brick and The most bizarre publication to have been produced by Modi's supporters during the campaign was a 45-page comic book called Bal Narendra — Childhood Stories Of Narendra Modi. It was never officially endorsed and soon vent out of print, but nevertheless it caused quite a stir with its catalogue of larger-than-life deeds of heroism and selflessness by the fearless young boy. By this account he really was too good to be true. He rescues a drowning boy and a trapped bird. swims in crocodile-infested waters. stands up to school bullies. dutifully attends the local temple and cares daily for his siblings and parents. His mother must have adored him. 'He was a perfectionist and liked his clothes clean and crispy So he would always fold them carefully once they were dry,' according to one caption. Gandhi described salt as 'the only condiment Of the poor', and much Of the media choose to take the comic book's claims with a very large pinch Of the Mahatma's favourite additive. The publication did, however, encourage journalists to visit Vadnagar and see how the young Modi was actually remembered by those who knew him; the Times Of India turned up Some fascinating insights. 'Modi's childhood friends are certain that he was destined to make history,' the paper reported. 'Once when we were returning from school, we met an astrologer and showed Our palms to him,' according to Nagji Desai, now a local leader of the Congress Party. We were all keen to know what the future held in store for us. While the astrologer did not say anything great for us, he told Narendrabhai that he would either become a revered saint or a big political leader.
We even started poking fun at Narendrabhai by calling him rajneta (politician).' Another school friend, using the same suffix, bhai (brother'), as a mark of respect, told the paper, 'Narendrabhai would also read Our palms and rue the fact that we had such a bleak future while he was destined to move around in big cars.' As for the crocodile-infested waters, the Times of India says they disappeared from the lake close to where Modi was born decades ago. But they were still there when he was a boy. When asked about swimming with them, Modi denied that by doing so he was misbehaving. •l was brave, not naughty. There was a pond in my village and I loved to swim in that pond. I even had to wash my clothes there. So one day I picked up a crocodile baby and took it home, Later on I even took it to school and my teachers were very upset.' Most Of the time, however, it seems his teachers were satisfied with his behaviour and work record. He was not an exceptional student, but in those days he was a voracious reader. There was early evidence of the theatrical side that has stood him in such good stead in his subsequent political career. Prahlad Patel. who
was his Sanskrit teacher, told one interviewer he was 'only an average student. But he showed keen interest in debates and theatre. I set up the debating club at the school, and I remember Narendra was among the regular students in the club. Although he would eventually complete a master's degree in political science through a correspondence course at Gujarat University at the age of 33, school failed to keep the attention of a boy who was clearly restless and searching for his role in life. His oldest brother, Sombhai Modi, told the magazine The Caravan: 'Narendra always wanted to do something different. Something more than what we did on a daily routine at home and school.' Modi would later join the National Cadet Corps (NCC), but the organisation which gave his life its true purpose and helped define him, for better or worse, for the rest of his life was the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh_ The RSS had a greater impact than anything else on the character of the man and on the politics of the candidate for prime minister more than forty years later. It is worth putting Modi's life-story on hold briefly in order to understand it better.
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