Narendra Modi

Narendra Damodardas Modi (born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician who has served as the prime minister of India since 26 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 Hindutva paramilitary volunteer organisation. He is India's third-longest-serving prime minister, and the longest-serving prime minister outside the Indian National Congress.

Modi was born and raised in Vadnagar, where he completed his secondary education. He was introduced to the RSS at the age of eight, becoming a full-time worker for the organisation in Gujarat in 1971. Assigned by the RSS to the BJP in 1985, he rose through the party hierarchy and became general secretary in 1998. In 2001, Modi was appointed chief minister of Gujarat and elected to the legislative assembly soon after. His administration is considered complicit in the 2002 Gujarat violence in which over 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed, with many others raped or mutilated. An investigation authorised by the Supreme Court found no evidence to prosecute Modi. While his policies as chief minister were credited for encouraging economic growth, business and investment, his administration was criticised for failing to significantly improve health, poverty and education indices in the state.

In the 2014 Indian general election, Modi led the BJP to a parliamentary majority, the first for a party since 1984. His administration increased direct foreign investment and reduced spending on healthcare, education, and social welfare. Modi began a high-profile sanitation campaign, introduced the Goods and Services Tax, and weakened or abolished environmental and labour laws. His demonetisation of banknotes in 2016 sparked controversy. A 2019 airstrike against an alleged terrorist camp in Pakistan failed to hit targets of significance but had nationalist appeal.