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Narendra Modi The Prime Minister

It was on 17th September 1950, that Narendra Modi was born to Damodardas Mulchand and Heeraben Modi at Vadnagar located in the district of Mehsana district in Gujarat state (then known as Bombay State). He was the third among the family of 6 children from the oil presser community, known as Ghanchi. His dad used to have a tea shop at Vadnagar railway station and Narendra Modi used to help his father in this stall as a small kid. Later on he, along with his brother, owned a tea stall near the bus terminus in his locality. One of the teachers of the higher secondary school in Vadnagar where Modi finished his schooling in 1967, nostalgically pointed out that Modi, while being just average in studies, was excellent in debates and theatre. The teacher stated that Modi, right from his young age, developed a passion for taking part in role plays and loved to act famous or powerful characters on stage. This has probably rubbed off on his style of functioning in his role as Prime Minister.

At a tender age of 8, Modi came to know about the existence of the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) and got exposed to its movements, objectives and training programs. It was during one such meeting that Vakil Saheb or Lakshman Rao Imandar spotted Modi and offered to take him up under his wings. He personally mentored Modi and brought him into the RSS as a balswayamsevak. While working closely with the RSS, Modi also got the chance to work with senior leaders of Bharatiya Jana Sangh, Nathalal Jaghda and Vasant Gajendragadkar. These two people were instrumental in forming the BJP at Gujarat during 1980.

Modi, before becoming the 15th Prime Minister of India, was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014. He took the PM’s post on 26th May 2014. He was one of the most respected leaders of the BJP and he stood successfully as MP from his home town of Varanasi.

On 26th of May 2014, Narendra Modi, who was the first Prime Minister of India to have been born after the country’s independence, took oath as the 15th PM of the country. A unique highlight of this function was that, Modi had invited all the leaders of the SAARC nations to be a part of it and they had consented to the same. The function was witnessed by President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, President of Sri Lanka, Mahidra Rajapakshe, Prime Minister of Bhutan, Tshering Tobgay, President of Maldives, Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom, Prime Minister of Mauritius, Navin Ramgoolam, Prime Minister of Nepal, Sushil Koirala, Prime Minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif and National Parliament of Bangladesh’s speaker, Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, who had attended this on behalf of the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina. Hasina had to go travel of Japan due to a prior commitment and hence this arrangement. When Modi took oath, 45 ministers were formed in his cabinet, as against 70 ministers who were part of previous PM, Manmohan Singh’s cabinet.