Chief ministership of Narendra Modi 7 October 2001 –22 May 2014 | |
Party | Bharatiya Janata Party |
---|---|
First term 7 October 2001 –22 December 2002 | |
Cabinet | First |
Election | 2002 (by-election) |
Appointed by | Governor Sunder Singh Bhandari |
Seat | Rajkot II |
Second term 22 December 2002 –22 December 2007 | |
Cabinet | Second |
Election | 2002 |
Appointed by | Governor Sunder Singh Bhandari |
Seat | Maninagar |
Third term 23 December 2007 –20 December 2012 | |
Cabinet | Third |
Election | 2007 |
Appointed by | Governor Nawal Kishore Sharma |
Seat | Maninagar |
Fourth term 20 December 2012 –22 May 2014 | |
Cabinet | Fourth |
Election | 2012 |
Appointed by | Governor Kamla Beniwal |
Seat | Maninagar |
Official website |
The chief ministership of Narendra Modi began 7 October 2001 with his oath as the chief minister of Gujarat at the Raj Bhavan,Gandhinagar. He became the 14th chief minister of Gujarat,succeeding Keshubhai Patel of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
In 2001,Keshubhai Patel's health was failing and the BJP lost a few state assembly seats in by-elections. Allegations of abuse of power,corruption and poor administration were made,and Patel's standing had been damaged by his administration's handling of the earthquake in Bhuj in 2001. [1] [2] [3] The BJP national leadership sought a new candidate for the chief ministership,and Modi,who had expressed misgivings about Patel's administration,was chosen as a replacement. [4] Advani did not want to ostracise Patel and was concerned about Modi's lack of experience in government. Modi declined an offer to become Patel's deputy chief minister,telling Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee he was "going to be fully responsible for Gujarat or not at all". On 3 October 2001,Modi replaced Patel as Chief Minister of Gujarat with the responsibility of preparing the BJP for the upcoming December 2002 election. [5] On 7 October,Modi was sworn in [6] and he entered the Gujarat state legislature on 24 February 2002 after winning a by-election in Rajkot II constituency,defeating Ashwin Mehta of the INC. [7]
On 27 February 2002, a train with several hundred passengers burned near Godhra, killing approximately 60 people. [lower-alpha 1] [10] The train carried a large number of Hindu pilgrims who were returning from Ayodhya after a religious ceremony at the site of the demolished Babri Masjid. [11] [12] In a public statement, Modi said local Muslims were responsible for the incident. [13] [11] [14] The next day, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad called for a bandh (general strike) across the state. [15] [16] Riots began during the bandh and anti-Muslim violence spread through Gujarat. [11] [15] [16] The government's decision to move the bodies of the train victims from Godhra to Ahmedabad further inflamed the violence. [11] [17] The state government later stated 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus were killed during the riots; [12] independent sources put the death toll at over 2,000, [11] [10] [18] the vast majority of them Muslims. [10] Approximately 150,000 people were driven to refugee camps. [19] Numerous women and children were among the victims; the violence included mass rapes and mutilation of women. [20] [21]
Scholars consider the Government of Gujarat to have been complicit in the riots, [13] [22] and it has received much criticism for its handling of the situation; [23] some scholars explicitly blame Modi. [20] [24] [25] The Modi government imposed a curfew in 26 major cities, issued shoot-at-sight orders and called for the army to patrol the streets; these measures failed to prevent the violence from escalating. [15] [16] The president of the state unit of the BJP expressed support for the bandh despite such actions being illegal at the time. [13] State officials later prevented riot victims from leaving the refugee camps, which were often unable to meet the needs of those living there. [26] Muslim victims of the riots were subjected to further discrimination when the state government announced their compensation would be half that offered to Hindu victims; this decision was later reversed after the issue was taken to court. [27] During the riots, police officers often did not intervene in situations where they were able. [20] [14] [28] Several scholars have described the violence as a pogrom and others have called it an example of state terrorism. [29] [30] [31] According to Martha Nussbaum, "There is by now a broad consensus that the Gujarat violence was a form of ethnic cleansing, that in many ways it was premeditated, and that it was carried out with the complicity of the state government and officers of the law". [20]
Modi's personal involvement in the 2002 events has continued to be debated. During the riots, he said, "What is happening is a chain of action and reaction". [20] Later in 2002, Modi said the way in which he had handled the media was his only regret regarding the episode. [32] In March 2008, the Supreme Court of India reopened several cases related to the riots, including that of the Gulbarg Society massacre, and established a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to look into the issue. [23] [33] [34] In response to a petition from Zakia Jafri, the widow of Ehsan Jafri, who was killed in the Gulbarg Society massacre, in April 2009, the court also asked the SIT to investigate Modi's complicity in the killings. [33] The SIT questioned Modi in March 2010; in May, it presented to the court a report finding no evidence against him. [33] [35] In July 2011, the court-appointed amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran submitted his final report to the court. Contrary to the SIT's position, Ramachandran said Modi could be prosecuted based on the available evidence. [36] [37] The Supreme Court sent the matter to the magistrate's court. The SIT examined Ramachandran's report, and in March 2012 submitted its final report, asking for the case to be closed. Zakia Jafri filed a protest petition in response. In December 2013, the magistrate's court rejected the protest petition, accepting the SIT's finding there was no evidence against Modi. [38] In 2022, the Supreme Court dismissed a petition by Zakia Jafri in which she challenged the clean chit given to Modi in the riots by the SIT, and upheld previous rulings that no evidence against him was found. [39] [40] [41]
Following the violence, calls for Modi to resign as chief minister were made from politicians within and outside the state, including leaders of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Telugu Desam Party—partners in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance coalition—and opposition parties stalled Parliament over the issue. [42] Modi submitted his resignation at the April 2002 BJP national executive meeting in Goa but it was not accepted. [43] Despite opposition from the election commissioner, who said a number of voters were still displaced, Modi succeeded in advancing the election to December 2002. [44] In the election, the BJP won 127 seats in the 182-member assembly. [45] Modi made significant use of anti-Muslim rhetoric during his campaign, [46] [47] [48] [49] and the BJP profited from religious polarisation among voters. [44] Modi framed the criticism of his government for human rights violations as an attack upon Gujarati pride, [50] [46] a strategy that led to the BJP winning 127 of the 182 [45] seats—a two-thirds majority—in the state assembly. [50] [46] He won Maninagar constituency, defeating Congress candidate Yatin Oza. [51] On 22 December 2002, Modi was sworn in for a second term. [52]
During Modi's second term, the government's rhetoric shifted from Hindutva to Gujarat's economic development. [2] [50] [46] He curtailed the influence of Sangh Parivar organisations such as Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) and Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP). [53] When the BKS staged a farmers' demonstration, Modi ordered the BKS's eviction from state-provided houses, and his decision to demolish 200 illegal temples in Gandhinagar deepened the rift with the VHP. [53] [54] Modi retained connections with some Hindu nationalists. He wrote a foreword to a 2014 textbook by Dinanath Batra, which made the unscientific claim that ancient India possessed technologies including test-tube babies. [55] [56]
Modi's relationship with Muslims continued to attract criticism. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee distanced himself, reaching out to North Indian Muslims before the 2004 Indian general election, following which, Vajpayee called the violence in Gujarat a reason for the BJP's electoral defeat and said it had been a mistake to leave Modi in office after the riots. [57] [58] Western nations also raised questions about Modi's relationship with Muslims: the US State Department barred him from entering the United States in accordance with the recommendations of that country's Commission on International Religious Freedom, [59] [60] the only person to be denied a US visa under this law. [59] The UK and the European Union (EU) refused to admit Modi because of what they saw as his role in the riots. As Modi rose to prominence in India, the UK [61] and the EU [62] lifted their bans in October 2012 and March 2013, respectively, and after his election as prime minister in 2014, the US lifted its ban and invited him to Washington, D.C. [63] [64]
During the run-up to the 2007 Gujarat Legislative Assembly election and the 2009 Indian general election, the BJP intensified its rhetoric on terrorism. [65] Modi criticised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh "for his reluctance to revive anti-terror legislation" such as the 2002 Prevention of Terrorism Act. [66] In 2007, Modi wrote Karmayog, a 101-page booklet discussing manual scavenging. In it, he said scavenging is a "spiritual experience" for Valmiks, a sub-caste of Dalits. [67] [68] The book was not circulated at that time because of the election code of conduct. [69] After the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, the Gujarat government authorised the deployment of 30 high-speed boats for coastal surveillance. [70] In July 2007, Modi completed 2,063 consecutive days as chief minister of Gujarat, making him the longest-serving holder of that post. [71] The BJP won 122 of 182 state-assembly seats in that year's election. [72]
Despite the BJP's shift away from explicit Hindutva, Modi's campaigns in 2007 and 2012 Gujarat Legislative Assembly elections contained elements of Hindu nationalism. He attended only Hindu religious ceremonies and had prominent associations with Hindu religious leaders. During his 2012 campaign, Modi twice refused to wear skullcap gifted by Muslim leaders. [46] He did, however, maintain relations with Dawoodi Bohra. [46] Modi's 2012 campaign included references to issues known to cause religious polarisation, including Afzal Guru and the death of Sohrabuddin Sheikh. The BJP did not nominate any Muslim candidates for the 2012 assembly election. [46] During the 2012 campaign, Modi attempted to identify himself with the state of Gujarat, a strategy similar to that used by Indira Gandhi during the Emergency, and projected himself as protecting Gujarat against persecution by the rest of India. [46] While campaigning for the 2012 Gujarat Legislative Assembly election, Modi made extensive use of holograms and other technologies, allowing him to reach a large number of people, [44] something he repeated in the 2014 general election. Modi won the constituency of Maninagar, defeating Shweta Bhatt of the INC. [73] The BJP won 115 of the 182 seats, continuing its majority during his tenure. [74] After his election as Prime Minister of India, Modi resigned as the Gujarat chief minister and as MLA for Maninagar. Anandiben Patel succeeded Modi as chief minister. [75]
As chief minister, Modi favoured privatisation and small government, which was at odds with the philosophy of the RSS, which is usually described as anti-privatisation and anti-globalisation. Modi's policies during his second term have been credited with reducing corruption in Gujarat. He established financial and technology parks in the state and during the 2007 Vibrant Gujarat summit, real-estate investment deals worth ₹6.6 trillion (equivalent to ₹20 trillionorUS$240 billion in 2023) were signed. [2]
The governments led by Patel and Modi supported NGOs and communities in the creation of groundwater-conservation projects. By December 2008, 500,000 structures had been built, of which 113,738 were check dams, which helped recharge the aquifers beneath them. [76] Sixty of the 112 tehsils which had depleted the water table in 2004 had regained their normal groundwater levels by 2010. [77] As a result, the state's production of genetically modified cotton increased to become the largest in India. [76] The boom in cotton production and its semi-arid land use [78] led to Gujarat's agricultural sector growing at an average rate of 9.6 per cent from 2001 to 2007. [79] Public irrigation measures in central and southern Gujarat, such as the Sardar Sarovar Dam, were less successful. The Sardar Sarovar project irrigated only 4–6% of the area intended. [76] In 2008, Modi offered land in Gujarat to Tata Motors to set up a plant manufacturing the Nano car after popular agitation had forced the company to move out of West Bengal. Following Tata, several other companies relocated to Gujarat. [80]
The Modi government finished the process of taking electricity to every village in Gujarat its predecessor had almost completed. [81] Modi significantly changed the state's system of power distribution, greatly impacting farmers. Gujarat expanded the Jyotigram Yojana scheme, in which agricultural electricity was separated from other rural electricity; the agricultural electricity was rationed to fit scheduled irrigation demands, reducing its cost. Early protests by farmers ended when those who benefitted found their electricity supply had stabilised [76] but, according to an assessment study, corporations and large farmers benefited from the policy at the expense of small farmers and labourers. [82]
A contentious debate surrounds the assessment of Gujarat's economic development during Modi's tenure as chief minister. [83] The state's gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate averaged 10% during his tenure, a rate similar to those of other highly industrialised states, and above that of India as a whole. [80] Gujarat also had a high rate of economic growth in the 1990s, before Modi took office; some scholars have stated growth did not much accelerate during his tenure. [84] Under Modi, Gujarat topped the World Bank's "ease of doing business" rankings among Indian states for two consecutive years. [85] In 2013, a report measuring governance, growth, citizens' rights, and labour and business regulation among the country's 20 largest states, ranked Gujarat first among Indian states for "economic freedom". [80] [86] In the later years of Modi's government, Gujarat's economic growth was frequently used as an argument to counter allegations of communalism. [50] Tax breaks and land for businesses were easier to obtain in Gujarat than in other states. Modi's policies of making Gujarat attractive for investment included the creation of Special Economic Zones in which labour laws were greatly weakened. [46]
Despite its growth rate, Gujarat had a relatively poor record on human development, poverty relief, nutrition and education during Modi's tenure. In 2013, Gujarat ranked 13th in India with respect to rates of poverty, and 21st in education. Nearly 45 per cent of children under five were underweight and 23 per cent were undernourished, putting the state in the "alarming" category on the India State Hunger Index. [87] [88] A study by UNICEF and the Indian government found Gujarat under Modi had a poor record in immunisation of children. [89]
From 2001 to 2011, Gujarat did not change its position relative to the rest of the country with respect to poverty and female literacy, remaining near the median of the 29 Indian states. [27] It showed a marginal improvement in rates of infant mortality and its position with respect to individual consumption declined. [27] The quality of education in government schools in Gujarat ranked below that of many Indian states. [27] The state government's social policies generally did not benefit Muslims, Dalits and Adivasis, and generally increased social inequalities. [27] Development in Gujarat was generally limited to the urban middle class, and citizens in rural areas and those from lower castes were increasingly marginalised. In 2013, the state ranked 10th of 21 Indian states in the Human Development Index. [90] Under Modi, the state government spent less than the national average on education and healthcare. [27]
During its raids in 2013 and 2014, the CBI seized some diaries from two big Indian companies, Sahara Group and Aditya Birla Group. These diaries contained references of alleged payments made to leaders belonging to as many as 18 political parties including BJP, Congress, JDU, BJD etc. [91] [92] Among these were some entries mentioning "Gujarat CM" and "Ahmadabad Modiji". [93] [94] [92] Citing these entries, on 21 December 2016, the opposition leader Rahul Gandhi alleged that Modi received cash bribes worth ₹65 crore (US$7.8 million) from Sahara Group and Aditya Birla Group when he was the chief minister of Gujarat. [95] [96] In November 2016, advocate Prashant Bhushan had filed a plea in the Supreme Court of India asking for investigation of the alleged bribe payments made to some senior public servants including Modi. [97] [98] A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Arun Kumar Mishra dismissed the plea in January 2017 stating that the evidence provided was insufficient. [99] [100] Later on, Justice Mishra was criticised by a section of advocates and activists for siding with the Modi government in multiple judgements during his tenure at the Supreme Court. [101] [102] The Wire questioned the manner in which the Supreme Court buried the Sahara-Birla diaries' investigation. [103]
The Bharatiya Janata Party is a political party in India and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under the incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The BJP is aligned with right-wing politics and has close ideological and organisational links to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a far-right paramilitary organisation. Its policies adhere to Hindutva, a Hindu nationalist ideology. As of January 2024, it is the country's biggest political party in terms of representation in the Parliament of India as well as state legislatures.
Narendra Damodardas Modi is an Indian politician serving as the current 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 Hindu nationalist paramilitary volunteer organisation. He is the longest-serving prime minister outside the Indian National Congress.
Teesta Setalvad is an Indian civil rights activist and journalist. She is the secretary of Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), an organisation formed to advocate for the victims of 2002 Gujarat riots.
Pravin Togadia is an Indian doctor, cancer surgeon and an advocate for Hindu nationalism, coming from the state of Gujarat. He was the former International Working President of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and a cancer surgeon by qualification. He is Founder and Current President of Antarashtriya Hindu Parishad. He had a falling-out with the Sangh Parivar and is a vocal critic of Narendra Modi.
The Godhra train burning occurred on the morning of 27 February 2002, when 59 Hindu pilgrims and karsevaks returning from Ayodhya were killed in a fire inside the Sabarmati Express near the Godhra railway station in Gujarat, India. The cause of the fire remains disputed. The Gujarat riots, during which Muslims were the targets of widespread and severe violence, took place shortly afterward.
The 2002 Gujarat riots, also known as the 2002 Gujarat violence or the Gujarat pogrom, was a three-day period of inter-communal violence in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The burning of a train in Godhra on 27 February 2002, which caused the deaths of 58 Hindu pilgrims and karsevaks returning from Ayodhya, is cited as having instigated the violence. Following the initial riot incidents, there were further outbreaks of violence in Ahmedabad for three months; statewide, there were further outbreaks of violence against the minority Muslim population of Gujarat for the next year.
Ehsan Jafri was an Indian politician and former member of the 6th Lok Sabha for the Congress Party, who was killed in the Gulbarg Society massacre.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee was an Indian politician who served thrice as Prime Minister of India, first from 16 May to 1 June 1996, and then from 19 March 1998 to 22 May 2004. A member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Vajpayee was the tenth Prime Minister. He headed the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in the Indian Parliament, and became the first Prime Minister unaffiliated with the Indian National Congress to complete a full five-year term in office. He died at the age of 93 on Thursday 16 August 2018 at 17:05 at AIIMS, New Delhi.
R.B. Sreekumar is a former Gujarat State Director-General of Police.
The Gulbarg Society massacre took place on 28 February 2002, during the 2002 Gujarat riots, when a crowd started stone pelting the Gulbarg Society, a Muslim neighbourhood in the eastern part of Chamanpura, Ahmedabad in the Indian state of Gujarat. Most of the houses were burnt, and at least 35 victims, including a former Congress Member of Parliament, Ehsan Jafri, were burnt alive, while 31 others went missing after the incident, later presumed dead, bringing the total deaths to 69.
Amitbhai Anilchandra Shah is an Indian politician who is currently serving as the 32nd minister of Home Affairs since May 2019 and the 1st minister of Co-operation since July 2021. He is also the member of parliament (MP) for Gandhinagar. He served as the 10th president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from 2014 to 2020. He has also served as chairman of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) since 2014. He had been elected as a member of the upper house of parliament, Rajya Sabha, from Gujarat from 2017 to 2019.
Maya Surendrakumar Kodnani is a former Minister of State for Women and Child Development in the Government of Gujarat. Kodnani joined the 12th legislative assembly of Gujarat after being elected to represent the constituency of Naroda as a candidate for the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Naroda Patiya massacre took place on 28 February 2002 at Naroda, in Ahmedabad, India, during the 2002 Gujarat riots. 97 Muslims were killed by a mob of approximately 5,000 people, organised by the Bajrang Dal, a wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad, and allegedly supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party which was in power in the Gujarat State Government. The massacre at Naroda occurred during the bandh (strike) called by Vishwa Hindu Parishad a day after the Godhra train burning. The riot lasted over 10 hours, during which the mob plundered, stabbed, sexually assaulted, gang-raped and burnt people individually and in groups. After the conflict, a curfew was imposed in the state and Indian Army troops were called in to contain further violence.
Gordhan Zadafia is an Indian politician from Gujarat, India. He was a leader in Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) for 15 years before joining Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The 2002 Gujarat Legislative Assembly elections were held in December 2002; they necessitated by the resignation of Chief Minister Narendra Modi and the dissolution of the legislative assembly in July 2002, 8 months before its term was due to expire. Modi resigned due to widespread allegations that he had taken insufficient action to prevent the riots that took place a few months earlier. The Bharatiya Janata Party was led by Modi, with the Indian National Congress being the chief opposition.
The Truth: Gujarat 2002 was an investigative report on the 2002 Gujarat riots published by India's Tehelka news magazine in its 7 November 2007 issue. The video footage was screened by the news channel Aaj Tak. The report, based on a six-month-long investigation and involving video sting operations, stated that the violence was made possible by the support of the state police and the then Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi for the perpetrators. The report and the reactions to it were widely covered in Indian and international media. The recordings were authenticated by India's Central Bureau of Investigation on 10 May 2009.
There have been several instances of religious violence against Muslims since the partition of India in 1947, frequently in the form of violent attacks on Muslims by Hindu nationalist mobs that form a pattern of sporadic sectarian violence between the Hindu and Muslim communities. Over 10,000 people have been killed in Hindu-Muslim communal violence since 1950 in 6,933 instances of communal violence between 1954 and 1982.
Gujarat: The Making of a Tragedy is a book about the 2002 Gujarat riots edited by Siddharth Varadarajan.
Cow vigilante violence is a pattern of mob-based collective vigilante violence seen in India. The attacks are perpetuated by Hindu nationalists against non-Hindus to protect cows, which are considered sacred in Hinduism.
The Sahara-Birla Papers are computer printouts and diaries with purported details on money paid by Sahara Group and Aditya Birla Group to some of the ministers and judges in India.