FDI can refer to:

Medical[link]

• FDI World Dental Federation, Fédération dentaire internationale. The World Dental Federation also have an Annual World Dental Congress, also known as the FDI.
• first dorsal interosseous, one of the four dorsal interossei muscles of the hand (not to be confused with the fourth dorsal interosseous)

Finance[link]

• FDi magazine, a UK-based publication that covers foreign direct investment
• Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, usually FDIC
• Foreign direct investment, investment outside the economy of the investor
• Fraudulent Device Inhibitor, security to prevent skimming devices on automated teller machines
• Financial Derivative Instrument

Computing[link]

• Flexible Display Interface, an interface to permit Intel CPUs with embedded graphics to communicate with compatible chipsets
• Formatted Disk Image, a computer disc image format file

Other[link]

• Fault detection and isolation, in control engineering
• Formative Driven Instruction, an instructional model
• Foundation for Democracy in Iran, US based Iranian dissident organization

See also[link]

• All pages beginning with "FDI"
• All pages with titles containing "FDI"

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

L.K. Advani
Deputy Prime Minister of India
In office 5 February 2000 – 22 May 2004
Preceded by	Chaudhary Devi Lal
Succeeded by	Vacant
Minister of Home Affairs
In office 19 March 1998 – 22 May 2004
Prime Minister	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Preceded by	Indrajit Gupta
Succeeded by	Shivraj Patil
Leader of Opposition (Lok Sabha)
In office May 2004 – December 2009
Preceded by	Sonia Gandhi
Succeeded by	Sushma Swaraj
In office 1989–1993
Minister of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions
In office 29 January 2003 – 21 May 2004
Prime Minister	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Minister of Coal and Mines
In office 1 July 2002 – 25 August 2002
Prime Minister	Atal Bihari Vajpayee
President of Bharatiya Janata Party
In office 1986–1991
In office 1993–1998
In office 2004–2006
Leader of Opposition (Rajya Sabha)
In office January 1980 – April 1980
Personal details
Born	(1927-11-08) 8 November 1927 (age 84) Karachi, (Sindh) British India (now Pakistan)
Political party	Bharatiya Janata Party (1980–present)
Other political affiliations	Bharatiya Jana Sangh (Before 1977) Janata Party (1977–1980)
Spouse(s)	Kamla Advani
Children	Pratibha (Daughter) Jayant (Son)
Alma mater	Saint Patrick's High School, Karachi Sindh D. G. National College, Hyderabad, Sindh Government Law College, Bombay University.
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Hindu
Signature	L. K. Advani's signature
Website	Official website

Lal Krishna Advani (Sindhi: लाल किशनचंद आडवाणी (Devanagari) [laˑl kiɕəntɕən̪d̪ aˑᶑʋaˑɳiˑ]; born on 8 November 1927, at Karachi) known as L.K Advani is a Veteran Indian politician. A former president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is currently the major opposition party in the Indian Parliament. He also served as a Deputy Prime Minister of India from 2002 to 2004. He was the Leader of the Opposition in the 10th Lok Sabha and 14th Lok Sabha (Lower House of the Indian Parliament).^[1] Advani began his political career as a volunteer of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

Early life and education[link]

L.K Advani was born at Karachi, in Sindh of British India to Kishanchand D Advani and Gyani Devi. He completed his early schooling from Saint Patrick's High School, Karachi, then he joined the D G National College in Hyderabad, Sindh for his college education. He then graduated in Law from Government Law College, Bombay University.^[2]

Political career[link]

Early career[link]

L.K Advani's life as a politician started in 1947 when he was elected as the Secretary, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Karachi. In 1947, Advani was sent to Mewar in Rajasthan, which had witnessed communal violence following partition, to oversee the affairs of the RSS there.

Jana Sangh to Janata Party[link]

Advani became a member of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, which was founded in 1951 by Shyama Prasad Mukherjee. After serving various positions in the Jana Sangh, he became its President in 1975. When Jai Prakash Narayan, who led the public movement against the Emergency refused to campaign for the opposition parties unless all of them joined together, the Jana Sangh and many other opposition parties merged into the Janata Party. With the dissolution of Jana Sangh, Advani and his colleague Atal Bihari Vajpayee joined the Janata Party to fight the Lok Sabha Elections of 1977.

Janata Party to Bharatiya Janata Party[link]

The Janata Party was formed by political leaders and activists of various political parties who had been united in opposing the state of Emergency imposed in 1975 by then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. After elections were called in 1977, the Janata Party was formed from the union of the Congress (O), Swatantra Party, Socialist Party of India, Bharatiya Jana Sangh and the Lok Dal. Indian National Congress defector Jagjivan Ram formed the Congress for Democracy and joined the Janata alliance. The widespread unpopularity of Emergency rule gave Janata Party and its allied a landslide victory in the election. Morarji Desai became the Prime Minister of India, Advani became the Minister of Information and Broadcasting and his close friend and Jana Sangh senior colleague Atal Bihari Vajpayee became the External Affairs Minister.

The nature of the birth of the Janata Party sowed the seeds of its destruction as well. Bitter animosity amongst its ranks ensured that the government remained on the brink. Finally, the issue of dual membership became the bone of contention as some members of the Janata Party insisted that the erstwhile members of the Jana Sangh dissociate themselves from the right-wing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

The erstwhile members of the Jana Sangh, came out of the Janata Party and they formed the new Bharatiya Janata Party. Advani became a prominent leader of the newly founded BJP and represented the party in the Rajya Sabha (Upper House of the Indian Parliament).^[2]

The rise of the BJP[link]

Advani became the president of the BJP in 1986. His rise coincided with a growing unease and disquiet with the ruling Congress Party, among the Hindus due the increasing fundamentalism among the minority Muslims. Sensing an opportunity Advani embarked on a new aggressive phase of his politics and by 1991, he had taken a party to new heights.

He gradually brought in a shift in the party's policies by advocating Hindutva. Meanwhile, the finance minister V. P. Singh also defected. In the elections of 1989, the combined might of the VP Singh led Janata Dal and the BJP managed to eat into the Congress's seats. Despite emerging as the single largest party, the Congress opted to sit in Opposition, and a coalition headed by V P Singh as Prime Minister formed the government. The BJP supported this government from the outside.

Lal Krishna Advani with Condoleezza Rice

In 1989, the BJP launched a movement led by Advani on the issue of the Ram Janmabhoomi (the birth place of Rama). The BJP demanded that a temple dedicated to deity Rama be created at the site of the Babri Masjid where, according to Archaeological Survey of India (ASI),^[3][4] a temple stood till Babur's invasion of India in 1528. Sunni Central Wakf Board rejected this claim. However, rather than a settling on a political solution to the dispute, the disputed structure was destroyed by a Hindu mob, sparking massive Hindu-Muslim riots.

Advani embarked on a "Rath Yatra" to mobilize "karsevaks" to converge upon the Babri Masjid to offer prayers. This "Rath Yatra", undertaken in an air-conditioned van decorated to look like a chariot, started from Somnath in Gujarat and had covered a large part of Northern India until it was brought to a halt by the Chief Minister of Bihar, Laloo Prasad Yadav.

This movement helped the BJP cross fresh boundaries, especially in North India. Advani succeeded in drawing away a large chunk of Hindu voters who were already mortified at the rise of Mandal politics, away from the Congress^{[citation needed]}. In the 1991 general elections, the BJP came second after the Congress party in terms of seats.

In 1992, two years after Advani ended his yatra, despite assurances given by the Kalyan Singh led BJP Government to the Supreme Court, the Babri Masjid was demolished by the "karsevaks" with alleged complicity of the Kalyan Singh government.^[5][6] Advani is one of the main accused in the Babri Masjid case.^[7]

BJP, under Advani, sat in the opposition from 1991-1996 during the reign of P V Narasimha Rao. The Rao regime was repeatedly accused by the BJP of corruption and various scandals.

NDA Government formation[link]

After the 1996 general elections, the BJP became the single largest party and was consequently invited by the President to form the Government. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was sworn in as Prime Minister in May 1996. However, the Government did not last long and Vajpayee resigned after thirteen days.

After two years in the political wilderness, the BJP under the umbrella of the National Democratic Alliance (a BJP-led coalition), again came to power with Vajpayee as PM in March 1998, when elections were called after India saw two unstable Governments headed by H D Deve Gowda and I K Gujral respectively. Advani assumed the office of Home Minister and was later elevated to the position of Deputy Prime Minister. As Union Minister, Advani had a tough time with India facing a string of internal disturbances in the form of terror attacks from neighbouring Pakistan . The BJP-led NDA Government lasted for its full term of five years till 2004, with Vajpayee as the Prime Minister. The NDA was the only non-Congress Government to last for five years.

L.K. Advani with Dmitry Medvedev of Russia.

Advani was charged in a Hawala scandal where he allegedly received payments through hawalabrokers. He and others were later discharged by the Supreme Court of India, because there was no additional evidence which could be used to charge them.^[8] According to the judicial inquiry by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) they could not find any substantive evidences; the Supreme Court ruling stated that no statement even mentioned Advani's name and that evidence against him was limited to the mention of his name on a few loose sheets of paper.^[8]

However, the failure of this prosecution by the CBI was widely criticized.^[9] While some believe the CBI probe catapulted his rise through the BJP on his newfound "moral authority",^[10] others have claimed the inquiry was a political stunt.^[11][12]

As elections approached in 2004, Advani was supremely confident and conducted an aggressive campaign where he claimed the Congress Party would not get even 100 seats. The BJP suffered a defeat in the general elections held in 2004, and was forced to sit in the opposition. Another coalition, the United Progressive Alliance led by the resurgent Congress came to power, with Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister. The NDA disintegrated with the Telugu Desam Party, which had supported the NDA government from the outside, deserting the alliance.

Vajpayee retired from active politics after the 2004 defeat, putting Advani to the forefront of the BJP. Advani became Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha from 2004 to 2009. During this period, Advani had to deal with rebellion from within the party. His two close associates, Uma Bharati, and Madan Lal Khurana, and longtime rival Murali Manohar Joshi publicly spoke out against him. In June 2005, he drew much criticism when he, while on a visit to the Jinnah Mausoleum at Karachi - his town of birth, endorsed Mohammad Ali Jinnah and described him a "secular" leader. This did not sit well with the RSS either and Advani was forced to relinquish his post as BJP president. However, he withdrew the resignation a few days later.

The relationship between Advani and the RSS reached a low point when K S Sudarshan, opined that both Advani and Vajpayee give way to new leaders.^[13] At the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the BJP in Mumbai in December 2005, Advani stepped down as party president and Rajnath Singh, a relatively junior politician from the state of Uttar Pradesh was elected in his place. In March 2006, following a bomb blast at one of the holiest Hindu shrines at Varanasi, Advani undertook a "Bharat Suraksha Yatra" (Sojourn for National Security), to highlight the alleged failure of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (a Congress led coalition) in combating terrorism.

Prime Minister candidacy[link]

Advani discussing "black money" at one of many rallies during the 2009 campaign.

In an interview with a news channel in December 2006, L.K. Advani stated that as the Leader of the Opposition in a parliamentary democracy, he considered himself as the Prime Ministerial candidate for the general elections, ending on 16 May 2009.^[14] Some of his colleagues were not supportive of his candidacy.^[15]

A major factor going in favor of Advani was that he had always been the most powerful leader in the BJP with the exception of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who endorsed Advani's candidacy shortly after the interview was done. On 2 May 2007, BJP President Rajnath Singh, in an interview, stated that: "After Atal there is only Advani. Advani is the natural choice. It is he who should be PM".^[16] On 10 December 2007, the Parliamentary Board of BJP formally announced that L. K. Advani would be its prime ministerial candidate for the General Elections due in 2009.

However, Indian National Congress party and its allies won the 2009 General Elections, allowing incumbent Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to continue in office. Following the defeat in the elections, L. K. Advani paved way for Sushma Swaraj to become the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha.^[17]

Vajpayee-Advani Duo[link]

Through the 90s and the first few years of the 21st century, the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-LK Advani combination steered the BJP to heights it had never before witnessed. Their political relationship provided stability, continuity, experience and authority to a party that was beginning even then, to severely lack a solid second-rung. As Advani himself acknowledged, rarely do two political leaders share such a bond, a working relationship that allows them both to thrive and grow without disturbing the fine balance of that bond.

Vajpayee, the poet-Prime Minister and Advani as his able and trusted lieutenant, brought depth and gravity to the BJP leadership. It still is, and will be in many ways, the gold standard to which the BJP will hold itself for many years to come.

Rath Yatras[link]

Popularly known in India as the Eternal yatri or Eternal Charioteer,^[18] L.K. Advani has taken 6 yatras throughout India.

1. Ram Rath Yatra- L.K. Advani started his first Rath Yatra from Somnath, Gujarat^[19] on 25 September 1990 to finally reach Ayodhya on October 30, 1990. The yatra has been linked to the Mandir-Masjid dispute centred around Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid site at Ayodhya. The BJP and Advani, however, focused the yatra on the secularism–communalism debate.^[20]

2. Janadesh Yatra- Four Yatras named Janadesh Yatra^[21] started on 11 september 1993 from four corners of country. L.K. Advani led this yatra from Mysore. Travelling through 14 States and two Union Territories, the yatris congregated at Bhopal on September 25 in a massive rally. The purpose of Janadesh Yatrawas to seek the people's mandate against the two Bills, the Constitution 80th Amendment Bill and the Representation of People (Amendment) Bill.^[22]

3.Swarna Jayanti Rath Yatra- The Swarna Jayanti Rath Yatra by Mr. Advani travelled across India between May and July 1997. According to Mr.Advani, the yatra was conducted in celebration of 50 years of Indian Independence and also to project the BJP as a party committed to good governance.^[23]

4. Bharat Uday Yatra- The Bharat Uday Yatra took place in the run-up to the 2004 Lok Sabha Elections.^[24]

5. Bharat Suraksha Yatra- The BJP launched a nationwide mass political campaign in the form of the Bharat Suraksha Yatra from April 6 to May 10, 2006. It consisted of two yatras – one led by L.K. Advani, Leader of the Opposition (Lok Sabha), from Dwaraka in Gujarat to Delhi; and the other led by Rajnath Singh, then the President of the BJP, from Jagannath Puri in Orissa to Delhi.^[25] The yatra was focused on left wing terrorism, minority politics, corruption, protection of democracy and price rise.^[26]

6. Jan Chetna Yatra- The Jan Chetna Yatra was launched on 11 October 2011 from Sitab Diara, Bihar. The BJP states the purpose of Jan Chetna Yatra is to mobilise public opinion against corruption of the UPA government and put BJP agenda of good governance and clean politics before the people of India.^[27]

See also[link]

• Ayodhya debate
• Hawala scandal

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Lal Krishna Advani. My Country My Life. (2008). ISBN 978-81-291-1363-4.
• Lal Krishna Advani. New Approaches to Security and Development (Paperback). (2003). ISBN 978-981-230-219-9.
• Lal Krishna Advani. A Prisoner's Scrap-Book (Hardcover). (2002). ISBN 978-81-88322-10-7.
• Atmaram Kulkarni. The Advent of Advani: An Authentic Critical Biography (Hardcover). (1995). ISBN 978-81-85345-22-2.
• Sudheendra Kulkarni. Swarna Jayanti Rath Yatra: The story of Lal Krishna Advani's patriotic pilgrimage. (1997). ASIN: B0000CPBO7.
• Pentagon Press. Lal Krishna Advani: Today's Patel (Paperback). (2002). ISBN 978-81-86830-57-4.
• G. Katyal. K. Bhushan. Lal Krishna Advani: Deputy Prime Minister (Hardcover). ASIN: B001G6MAZA
• Pentagon Press. Lala Krishna Advani (Paperback). (2007). ISBN 978-81-86830-59-8.
• Demolition by design VENKITESH RAMAKRISHNAN -Frontline Volume 26 - Issue 25 :: Dec. 05-18, 2009

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lal Krishna Advani

• Official site
• Profile on website of BJP
• BJP Leader, India
• Profile at BBC News
• Pakistan expresses shock at Mr Advani's resignation
• Allahabad High court order on the Babri Masjid demolition case
• Khurana asks Advani to step down
• Madan Lal Khurana suspended from BJP
• Advani praises functioning of Modi Govt
• Advani to call it quits in December
• Advani Discusses His Prime Ministerial Candidacy
• BJP to fight next poll under second-rung leader: Naqvi
• Official Blog of Lal Krishna Advani
• My Country, My Life Official site

v t e State of Emergency in India (1975–1977) Personalities Indira Gandhi - Jayaprakash Narayan - Siddhartha Shankar Ray - Jivatram Kripalani - Morarji Desai - Atal Bihari Vajpayee - K. Kamaraj - M. G. Ramachandran - M. Karunanidhi - Harcharan Singh Longowal - Lal Krishna Advani - Charan Singh - Jagjivan Ram - Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed - Sanjay Gandhi - Jagmohan - Bansi Lal - Zail Singh - Dev Kant Baruah - Jagmohanlal Sinha - Hans Raj Khanna - H. N. Bahuguna - Raj Narain - George Fernandes - Neelam Sanjiva Reddy Organisations Indian National Congress (R) - Janata Morcha - Janata Party - Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam - Dravidar Kazhagam - Indian National Congress (Organisation) - Shiromani Akali Dal - Bharatiya Jana Sangh - Swatantra Party - Bharatiya Lok Dal - Socialist Party of India - Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh - Communist Party of India (Marxist) - People's Union for Civil Liberties Events State of Emergency in India - State of Uttar Pradesh v. Raj Narain - 39th Amendment - 42nd Amendment - Turkman gate demolition and rioting - Baroda dynamite case - Shah Commission - Maintenance of Internal Security Act - Rajan case - Indian general election, 1977 Portal:India - History of India

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Anand Sharma
Anand Sharma at the 2012 World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos
Ministry of Commerce and Industry
Personal details
Born	(1953-01-05) 5 January 1953 (age 59) Shimla (Himachal Pradesh)
Nationality	India
Political party	Indian National Congress
Spouse(s)	Zenobia Sharma
Alma mater	Himachal Pradesh University
Occupation	Lawyer
Religion	Hinduism

Anand Sharma (Hindi: आनंद शर्मा; born 5 January 1953) is the current Union Cabinet Minister in charge of Commerce and Industry and Textiles^[1] in the Government of India. Sharma is a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament.

Early life and education[link]

Anand Sharma is the son of P. A. Sharma and Prabha Rani Sharma and was born in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. He was educated at R.P.C.S.D.B. College, Shimla and Faculty of Law, Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla.

Career[link]

Sharma was a prominent leader in the student and youth movement in India, a founder member of the Congress Party's students wing the NSUI. He was also a former President of the Youth Congress at a time when that organization was proactive on the issue of the abolition of apartheid in South Africa. Sharma asserts that the country needed investment in the manufacturing sector and the cost of credit must be brought down for this purpose.^[2] In February 2012, Sharma led a business delegation of more than 120 people to Pakistan for improving trade ties. During this visit, he discussed the revision of the existing visa bilateral agreement, signed in 1974, with his Pakistani counterpart Makhdoom Muhammad Ameen Faheem, to facilitate travel by bonafide businessmen from both the countries.^[3]

Personal life[link]

Anand Sharma married Dr. Zenobia on 23 February 1987. They have two sons. He is associated with a number of social and sports organizations and also an all India NGO in disability sector.^[4]

Positions held[link]

• 1984–86 Member, Committee on Petitions, Rajya Sabha
• 1985–88 Member, Joint Parliamentary Committee on Lok Pal Bill
• 1986–89 Nominated to the Panel of Vice-Chairmen, Rajya Sabha
• 1987–88 Member, Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Defence (India)
• 1988–90 Member, Committee on Government Assurances Member, Press Council of India
• April 2004 Elected to Rajya Sabha
• Oct. 2004 – Jan. 2006 Ministry of External Affairs (India)
• Aug. 2004 – Jan. 2006 Member, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence; Member, Consultative Committee for the Ministry of External Affairs; Member, Joint Committee on Salaries and Allowances of Members of Parliament
• Aug. 2004 – July 2006 Member, Business Advisory Committee
• 29 Jan. 2006 – 22 May 2009 Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs
• 22 May 2009 onwards Minister of Commerce and Industry

Awards[link]

• Conferred “The Order of the Companion of Volta”, top Ghanaian civilian award on 10 November 2008 by President John Kofi Agyekum Kufuor for his commitment to South-South cooperation.^[5]
• Honoured with the “Commander of the National Order of Merit”, the highest civilian award of Ivory Coast on 14 January 2009 by the President.^[5]
• Special Award for his contribution in strengthening India-South Africa relations given by South African President Jacob Zuma on the occasion of 150 Years of the First Arrival of Indians in South Africa.^[5]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Anand Sharma

• Rajya Sabha – Profile
• Department of Commerce biography

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (April 2012)

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Mamata Banerjee মমতা বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়
Chief Minister of West Bengal
Incumbent
Assumed office 20 May 2011
Governor	M. K. Narayanan
Preceded by	Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee
Constituency	Bhabanipur (Vidhan Sabha constituency)
Minister of Railways
In office 22 May 2009 – 19 May 2012
Preceded by	Lalu Prasad Yadav
Succeeded by	Manmohan Singh
Member of Parliament
In office 1991–2011
Preceded by	Biplab Dasgupta[1]
Succeeded by	Subrata Bakshi
Personal details
Born	(1955-01-05) 5 January 1955 (age 57) Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Nationality	Indian
Political party	Indian National Congress (1970–1997) Trinamool Congress (1997–present)
Spouse(s)	Unmarried
Residence	Harish Chatterjee Street, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Alma mater	University of Calcutta
Profession	Politician Advocate
Religion	Hindu[citation needed]
Signature

Mamata Banerjee (Bengali: মমতা বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়, pronounced [mɔːmoːt̪ʰaː bɛːnaːrjiː]; born 5 January 1955)^[2] is the 11th and current Chief Minister of West Bengal. She is the first woman to hold the office. Banerjee founded All India Trinamool Congress in 1997 and became chairperson, after separating from the Indian National Congress.^[3][4] She is usually called "Didi" (meaning elder sister). She is often cited by the media and critics to be as "megalomaniac, eccentric and populist politician".^[5][6][7]

Banerjee pulled off a landslide victory for the All India Trinamul Congress (AITMC ) or (TMC) in West Bengal by defeating the world's longest-serving democratically-elected communist government, the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front government, bringing to an end 34 years of Left Front rule in the state.^[8][9][10] Banerjee previously served as a Minister of Railways twice, Minister of Coal, and Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Department of Youth Affairs and Sports and Women and Child Development in the cabinet of the Indian government.^[11] She opposed forceful land acquisition for industrialisation by the then communist government in West Bengal for Special Economic Zones at the cost of agriculturalists and farmers.^[12]

In 2012, the Time magazine named her one of the "100 Most influential People in the World".^[13]

Early life and career[link]

Banerjee was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), West Bengal to Promileswar Banerjee and Gayetri Devi.^[14] She grew up in a lower middle class family, and her father died when she was young. Banerjee became involved with politics while still in school, joining the Congress (I) Party in West Bengal and serving in a variety of positions within the party and in other local political organizations. As a young woman in the 1970s, she quickly rose in the ranks^{[clarification needed]} to become the general secretary of the state Mohila Congress (1976–80).^[12] She was a college student in the mid-1970s when politics in Bengal began to accommodate the riffraff^{[clarification needed]}.

Banerjee graduated with an honours degree in History from the Jogamaya Devi College, an undergraduate women's college in southern Kolkata.^[15][16] Later she earned a master's degree in Islamic History from the University of Calcutta. This was followed by a degree in education from the Shri Shikshayatan College. She also earned a law degree from the Jogesh Chandra Chaudhuri Law College, Kolkata.^[17]

Throughout her political life Banerjee has maintained an austere lifestyle, always dressing in simple traditional Bengali cotton sarees called 'taat', while wearing none of cosmetics or jewellery and always has a cotton bag slung on her shoulder. She has remained single throughout her life.^[18][19]

Early political career[link]

Indian National Congress[link]

Banerjee started her political career in the Congress party, and as a young woman in the 1970s, she quickly rose in the ranks of the local Congress group, and remained the General Secretary of Mahila Congress (I), West Bengal, from 1976 to 1980.^[20] In the 1984 general election, Banerjee became one of India's youngest parliamentarians ever, beating veteran Communist politician Somnath Chatterjee, from the Jadavpur parliamentary Constituency in West Bengal. She also became the General-Secretary of the All India Youth Congress. Losing her seat in 1989 in an anti-Congress wave, she was back in 1991 general elections, having settled into the Calcutta South constituency. She retained the Kolkata South seat in the 1996, 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2009 general elections.^[21]

In the Rao government formed in 1991, Mamata Banerjee was made the Union Minister of State for Human Resources Development, Youth Affairs and Sports, and Women and Child Development. As the sports minister, she announced that she would resign, and protested in a rally at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata, against Government's indifference towards her proposal to improve sports in the country.^[22] She was discharged of her portfolios in 1993. In April 1996, she alleged that Congress was behaving as a stooge of the CPI-M in West Bengal. She claimed that she was the lone voice of reason and wanted a "clean Congress". At a private rally at Alipore in Kolkata, Mamata Banerjee wrapped a black shawl around her neck and threatened to make a noose with it.^[23] In July 1996, she squatted at the well of Lok Sabha, the lower house of Indian parliament, to protest a hike in petroleum price, although she was a part of the government that instituted it. In that very time she grasped the collar of Amar Singh, MP of Samajwadi Party, in the well of the parliament. In February 1997, on the day of railway budget presentation in Lok Sabha, Mamata Banerjee threw her shawl at the railway minister Ram Vilas Paswan for ignoring West Bengal and announced her resignation. The speaker, P. A. Sangma, did not accept her resignation and asked her to apologise. Later she came back when Santosh Mohan Deb mediated.

Trinamool Congress[link]

In 1997, Mamata Banerjee left the Congress Party in West Bengal and established the All India Trinamool Congress. It quickly became the primary opposition party to the long-standing Communist government in the state.^[why?] On 11 December 1998, she controversially held a Samajwadi Party MP, Daroga Prasad Saroj, by the collar and dragged him out of the well of the Lok Sabha to prevent him from protesting against the Women's Reservation bill.^[24]

In 1999, she joined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government and was allocated the Railways Ministry.^[21]

Railway Minister (first tenure)[link]

In 2000, Mamata Banerjee presented her first Railway Budget. In it she fulfilled many of her promises to her home state West Bengal.^[25] She introduced a new biweekly New Delhi-Sealdah Rajdhani Express train and four express trains connecting various parts of West Bengal, namely the Howrah-Purulia Rupasi Bangla Express, Sealdah-New Jalpaiguri Express, Shalimar-Bankura Arannyak Express and the Sealdah-Amritsar Superfast Express (weekly).^[25] She also increased the frequency of the Pune-Howrah Azad Hind Express and extension of at least three express train services. Work on the Digha-Howrah Express service was also hastened during her brief tenure.^[26]

She also focused on developing tourism, enabling the Darjeeling-Himalayan section with two additional locomotives and proposing the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited. She also commented that India should play a pivotal role in the Trans-Asian Railway and that rail links between Bangladesh and Nepal would be reintroduced. In all, she introduced 19 new trains for the 2000–2001 fiscal year.^[26]

In 2000, she and Ajit Kumar Panja resigned from the cabinet to protest the hike in petroleum prices,^[27] and then withdrew their resignations without any reason.^[28]

Split with NDA[link]

In early 2001, after the Tehelka expose,^[29] Banerjee walked out of the NDA cabinet and allied with the Congress Party for West Bengal's 2001 elections, amidst speculation that the move could unseat the Communist government.

Return to NDA[link]

She returned to the NDA government in January 2004, and holding the Coal and Mines portfolio till the Indian general election, 20 May 200404 elections, in which she was the only Trinamool Congress member to win a Parliament seat from West Bengal.^[21]

On 20 October 2005, she protested against the forceful land acquisition and the atrocities^{[clarification needed]} on local farmers in the name of industrial development policy of the Buddhadev Bhattacharya government in West Bengal. Benny Santoso, CEO of the Indonesia-based Salim Group had pledged a large investment to West Bengal, and the West Bengal government had given him farmland in Howrah, sparking protest. In soaking rain, Banerjee and other Trinamool Congress members stood in front of the Taj Hotel where Santoso had arrived, shut out by the police. Later, she and her supporters followed Santoso's convoy. A planned "black flag" protest was avoided, when the government had Santoso arrive three hours ahead of schedule.^[30][31]

Mamata Banerjee suffered further setbacks in 2005, when her party lost control of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the sitting mayor defected from her party. In 2006, the Trinamool Congress was defeated in West Bengal's Assembly Elections, losing more than half of its sitting members.

On 4 August 2006, Banerjee hurled her resignation papers at the deputy speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal in Lok Sabha. The provocation was the speaker (Somnath Catterjee)'s rejection of her adjournment motion on illegal infiltration by Bangladeshis in West Bengal. The motion was turned down by the speaker on the ground that it was not in the proper format.^[32][33]

In November 2006, Banerjee was forcibly stopped on her way to Singur for a rally against a proposed Tata Motors car project. Mamata reached the West Bengal assembly and protested at the venue. She addressed a press conference at the assembly and announced a 12-hour shutdown by her party on Friday.^[34] The Trinamul Congress MLAs^{[clarification needed]} protested by damaging furniture and microphones in the West Bengal Assembly.^[34][35] A major strike was called on 14 December 2006.

Alliance with UPA[link]

Before the 2009 parliamentary elections she forged an alliance with the UPA^{[clarification needed]}. The alliance won 26 seats. Banerjee joined the central cabinet as the railway minister (second tenure). In the 2010 Municipal Elections in West Bengal, TMC won Kolkata Municipal Corporation in a margin of 62 seats. TMC also won Bidhan Nagar Corporation in 16-9 seats margin. In 2011, Banerjee won a sweeping majority and assumed the position of chief minister of the state of West Bengal. Her party ended the 34-year rule.^{[clarification needed]}

Nandigram protests[link]

The Nandigram violence was an incident in Nandigram, West Bengal where, on the orders of the Left Front government, more than 4,000 heavily-armed police stormed the rural area in the district of Purba Medinipur with the aim of stamping out protests against the West Bengal government’s plans to expropriate 10,000 acres (40 km²) of land for a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) to be developed by the Indonesian-based Salim Group. The police shot dead at least 14 villagers and wounded 70 more.

The SEZ controversy started when the government of West Bengal decided that the Salim Group of Indonesia^[36][37][38] would set up a chemical hub under the SEZ policy at Nandigram. The villagers took over the administration of the area, and all the roads to the villages were cut off. A front-page story in the Kolkata newspaper, The Telegraph, on 4 January 2007 was headlined, "False alarm sparks clash". According to the newspaper that village council meeting at which the alleged land seizure was to be announced was actually a meeting to declare Nandigram a "clean village", that is, a village in which all the households had access to toilet facilities. The administration was directed to break the Maoist-backed Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee's (BUPC) resistance at Nandigram and a massive operation with at least 3,000 policemen along with armed cadre of the Marxist ruling party was launched on 14 March 2007. However, prior information of the impending action had leaked out to the BUPC who amassed a crowd of roughly 2,000 villagers at the entry points into Nandigram with women and children forming the front ranks. In the resulting mayhem, at least 14 people were killed.^[39] Many people of the lower classes were made homeless due to this political carnage.^[40] A large number of intellectuals protested on the streets and this incident gave birth of a new hope for movement to ouster the left from government headed by the CPI(M)^{[clarification needed]}.^[41][42][43] Mamata Banerjee wrote letters to the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil to stop the violence promoted by CPI(M) in Nandigram. Agitation in Nandigram subsided, after the state government shelved the proposed chemical hub project.

2009 Indian election[link]

Trinamool Congress performed well in the 2009 parliamentary election, bagging 19 MP seats, among them 5 women (including Banerjee), reiterating its faith in the Women's Reservation Bill^{[clarification needed]}. Its allies in congress and SUCI also got six and one MP seats respectively marking the best performance by any opposition party in West Bengal since the start of the left regime. Until then, the Congress victory of 16 seats in 1984, by the sympathy vote after the death of Indira Gandhi, was considered the best show of opposition.

Railway Minister (second tenure)[link]

In 2009, Mamata Banerjee became the railway minister for the second time. Her focus was again on West Bengal.^[44] She neglected her duties as a railway minister to concentrate on electioneering in West Bengal.^[45]

She led Indian Railways to introduce a number of non-stop Duronto Express trains connecting large cities^[46] besides a number of other passenger trains,^[47] including women-only trains.^{[48] [49][50]} The Anantnag-Qadigund railway line of the Kashmir railway that has been in the making since 1994^[51] was inaugurated during her tenure.^[52] She also declared the 25-km long line-1 of Kolkata Metro as an independent Zone of the Indian Railways^[53] for which she was criticized.^[54]

Reuters reported that "Her two-year record as railway minister has been heavily criticized for running the network into more debt to pay for populist measures such as more passenger trains."^[55] The Indian Railways became loss-making in her two-year tenure.^[56] Even before stepping down as railway minister to become the Chief Minister of West Bengal, she declared that she would be able to handle both the portfolios together.^[57] Her nominee Dinesh Trivedi from her party succeeded her as railway minister.

Allegations of dictatorial tendencies[link]

Forces Trivedi's Resignation as Railway Minister[link]

On 14 March 2012, Dinesh Trivedi announced the annual rail budget 2012 that included an all over hike in passenger fares, ranging from 2 paise to 30 paise per kilometre for reasons of safety, along with network expansion and associated modernisations. The rail fare had not been hiked for nearly a decade ^[58] putting Indian Railways in ICU as far as its financial viability was concerned. The proposed fare hike would have added 4200 crores to railways income, which while paltry compared to its expenses, would still have saved railways from becoming bankrupt. The budget received enthusiastic support from a wide cross section of society including the general public,^[59] industry groups^[60][61][62] and all five Rail Unions.^[63][64] However, the fare hike proposal in the budget was fiercely opposed by Mamata Banerjee. Although Trivedi initially tried to defend the budget by pointing out that it was necessary for making Indian Railways stronger, Mamata Banerjee forced him to resign as Railway Minister on 18 March 2012.^[65][66]

Criticism against Mamata over Trivedi's sacking[link]

On hearing of the incident, noted Indian woman entrepreneur and Chairman & MD of Biocon, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw tweeted that "Mamta is a dangerous, populist demagogue: economically illiterate but politically astute - deadly combo!". She added that "Mamta is a sad reflection on just how feudal our society and culture is - talk of human rights!" and "Mamata is behaving like a mad despot. Political leadership is in deficit with such irrational behaviour that can only harm the poor."^[67] Industrialist Rahul Bajaj opined that ""It was a very bold budget and he is a brave man to take such a tough call of increasing fares after ten years. I would have wished to see him around as the Railways Minister. However, it is very unfortunate that his own party is now distancing him."^[67] Veteran journalist, Vivian Fernandes reported that, "It is getting clearer by the day that Mamata Banerjee's poribortan is not a change for the better. Like the communists, she can only tear, not build." ^[68] Trinamool MP Kabir Suman came out in open support for Trivedi and expressed his solidarity with him, saying “My respects for the Chief Minister and other party leaders notwithstanding, I must say that it defies parliamentary decorum to get a Railway Minister removed simply because he has acted in the country’s interest.” ^[69]

Support for Mamata over Trivedi's sacking[link]

Mamata defended herself by saying that the entire Trivedi incident was Congress's "gameplan".^[69] However, Mamata received support for her actions from the Left, her main opposition, who said "Mamata has every right to ask for a rollback".^[70]

Ambikesh Mahapatra Cartoon incident[link]

Ambikesh Mahapatra, a professor of Jadavpur University was assaulted, then arrested and forced to spend a night in police custody for allegedly circulating 'defamatory' cartoons of Mamata Banerjee. While Prof. Mahapatra, as the victim of the assault was forced to spend a night in police station, his attackers - Amit Sardar, Arup Mukherjee, Sheikh Mustafa and Nishikanta Gharai – allegedly Trinamool Congress activists of the New Garia area on the southern fringes of Kolkata, were arrested on the next day and they were released on bail after being produced before the court.^[71] Mamata Banerjee defended the professor's arrest.^[72][73]

Walking off the stage where a discussion hosted by a television channel[link]

Mamata Banerjee stormed out off the stage in a huff during an interactive programme organised by CNN-IBN TV channel on Friday 18 May 2012 at the Kolkata Town Hall, Kolkata without answering questions from audience (which consisted a large number of students). Mamata alleged that the students were Maoist cadres. Moments after walking off the stage,the Chief Minister instructed the police to take photographs of those in the audience who had asked questions.“The students are only asking Maoist questions and the CPI(M) questions,” she complained as the programme moderator sought her answer to the issues raised. “They are the Maoist students."^[74]

Some publications, in their editorials characterized Mamata Banerjee as "Dictatorial"^[75] and her rule as "Mamata's growing dictatorship",^[76][77] citing her forcing Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi's resignation, and the professor Ambikesh Mahapatra cartoon incident, as examples of this tendency.

Chief Minister of West Bengal[link]

The All India Trinamool Congress along with SUCI^{[citation needed]} and the Indian National Congress won the legislative assembly election against the incumbent Left Alliance by securing 227 seats. TMC won 184 seats with the INC winning 42 seats and the SUCI secured one seat. This marked the end of the longest ruling democratically elected Communist party in the world.

Mamata Banerjee at Milan Mela ground after inauguration of the 'Infocom 2011' an IT fair in Kolkata.

Taking the Oath at Raj Bhavan, Kolkata Mamata Banerjee takes the oath of office as Chief Minister administered by Governor M. K. Narayanan on May 20, 2011.

Banerjee was sworn in as Chief Minister of West Bengal on 20 May 2011. As the first woman Chief Minister of West Bengal, one of her first decisions was to return 400 acres of land to Singur farmers. "The cabinet has decided to return 400 acres to unwilling farmers in Singur," the chief minister said. "I have instructed the department to prepare the papers for this. If Tatababu wants, he can set up his factory on the remaining 600 acres, otherwise we will see how to go about it," she added.^[78]

She has also been credited to solving the longstanding "Gorkhaland Problem"^{[clarification needed]} by setting up the Gorkhaland Autonomous Council.^[79]

She has started various reforms in education and health sectors. Some of the reforms in the education sectors include release of the monthly pay of the teachers on the first of every month^[80][81] and quicker pensions for retiring teachers.^[82] In health sector "A three-phase developmental system will be taken up to improve the heath infrastructure and service,” Mamata Banerjee said."^[83]

In fact she was instrumental in the rollback of the petrol price hikes ^[84] and the suspension of FDI in Retail Sector until a consensus is evolved.^[85] In a bid of improve the law and enforcement situation in West Bengal, Police commissionerates were created at Howrah, Barrackpore, Durgapur-Asansol and Bidhannagar. The total area of Kolkata Municipal Corporation has been brought under the control of Kolkata Police.

Even before assuming the role of Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee had shown keen interest in making the public aware of the state's history and culture. She had named several stations of the Kolkata Metro after freedom fighters,^[86] and plans on naming upcoming stations after religious leaders, poets, singers and the like.^[87] One of her unprecedented moves as Chief Minister has been to arrange for the playing of Rabindra Sangeet at traffic signals in Kolkata.^[88]

On 16 February 2012, Bill Gates, of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, sent a letter to the West Bengal government praising Mamata Banerjee and her administration for achieving a full year without any reported cases of polio. The letter said this was not only a milestone for India but also for the whole world.^[89][90]

Mamata Banerjee's Tenure as railway minister is now being questioned as most of the big-ticket announcements made by her last year when she was the railway minister, have seen little or no progress.^[91]

Knights Became kings -Bengal celebrates[link]

The state of West Bengal set up a grand felicitation involving Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee and Governor of West Bengal M K Narayanan after the KKR won the IPL 2012 championship throphy .^[92] The Cricket Association of Bengal gifted the 17 members of the team with gold chain each and mementos.^[92] A victory parade for the team members was also organized on 28th May beginning from Hazra , Writers Building to the Eden Garden stadium where ten thousand spectators came to cheer for the team during a one-hour celebration that was compared to the India's World Cup victory lap at the Wankhede in Mumbai the year before. ^[92] However, the celebration received criticim from media and certain political parties and has been ridiculed by some pols of society as it had only been organised for a club team.^[92] Shahrukh Khan, the team's co-owner and the state's brand ambassador, defended the move and stated: "There is no harm in being happy and sharing happiness. Nobody should criticise it. It's alright to be happy. Let's not be political. It has been done because we all are happy. There is nothing wrong if we bring a bit of happiness to the city of joy."^[92]There were about Lakhs of people waited in the Eden Gardens Stadium to be a part of this joy and happiness accross the city of Kolkata.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mamata Banerjee

Official

• Mamata Banerjee official All India Trinamool Congress Party profile
• Parliamentary profile at India.gov.in

Other

• Profile at BBC News
• Mamata Banerjee collected news and commentary at The Times of India
• "Is Mamata Banerjee Heading for a Fall?", The New York Times India Ink blog on "global home" web page, 15 April 2012.

v t e Current Chief Ministers of Indian states (list)     Andhra Pradesh: Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy Arunachal Pradesh: Nabam Tuki Assam: Tarun Gogoi Bihar: Nitish Kumar Chhattisgarh: Raman Singh Goa: Manohar Parrikar Gujarat: Narendra Modi Haryana: Bhupinder Singh Hooda Himachal Pradesh: Prem Kumar Dhumal Jammu and Kashmir: Omar Abdullah Jharkhand: Arjun Munda Karnataka: D. V. Sadananda Gowda Kerala: Oommen Chandy Madhya Pradesh: Shivraj Singh Chauhan Maharashtra: Prithviraj Chavan Manipur: Okram Ibobi Singh Meghalaya: Mukul Sangma Mizoram: Pu Lalthanhawla Nagaland: Neiphiu Rio Orissa: Naveen Patnaik Punjab: Parkash Singh Badal Rajasthan: Ashok Gehlot Sikkim: Pawan Kumar Chamling Tamil Nadu: Jayalalithaa Tripura: Manik Sarkar Uttar Pradesh: Akhilesh Yadav Uttarakhand: Vijay Bahuguna West Bengal: Mamata Banerjee Delhi: Sheila Dikshit Pondicherry: N. Rangaswamy

v t e Chief Ministers of West Bengal Prafulla Chandra Ghosh (15 August 1947-14 January 1948) · Bidhan Chandra Roy (14 January 1948-1 July 1962) · (President's rule) (1 July 1962-8 July 1962) · Prafulla Chandra Sen (8 July 1962-15 March 1967) · Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee (15 March 1967-2 November 1967) · Prafulla Chandra Ghosh (2 November 1967-20 February 1968) · (President's rule)  (20 February 1968-25 February 1969) · Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee (25 February 1969-19 March 1970) · (President's rule)  (19 March 1970-2 April 1971) · Prafulla Chandra Ghosh (2 April 1971-28 June 1971) · (President's rule) (28 June 1971-19 March 1972) · Siddhartha Shankar Ray (19 March 1972-21 June 1977) · Jyoti Basu (21 June 1977-6 November 2000) · Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee (6 November 2000-20 May 2011) · Mamata Banerjee (20 May 2011- present ) ·

Narendra Modi નરેન્દ્ર મોદી
Chief Minister of Gujarat
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 October 2001
Governor	Dr. Kamla Beniwal
Preceded by	Keshubhai Patel
Constituency	Maninagar
Personal details
Born	(1950-09-17) 17 September 1950 (age 61) Vadnagar, Gujarat, India
Political party	Bharatiya Janata Party
Residence	Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India
Alma mater	Gujarat University[1]
Religion	Hinduism
Website	Narendra Modi
As of 9 March, 2009 Source: Government of Gujarat

Narendra Damodardas Modi (Gujarati: નરેન્દ્ર મોદી; born 17 September 1950^[1]) is the current Chief Minister of the Indian state of Gujarat. Born in a middle class family in Vadnagar, he was the third of six children born to Damodardas Mulchand Modi and his wife Heeraben.^[2] He has been a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) since childhood also having interest in politics since adolescence. He holds a master's degree in political science. In 1998, he was chosen by L. K. Advani, the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), to direct the election campaign in Gujarat as well as Himachal Pradesh.

He became Chief Minister of Gujarat in October 2001, promoted to the office at a time when his predecessor Keshubhai Patel had resigned, following the defeat of BJP in the by-elections. His tenure as chief minister of Gujarat began on 7 October 2001, and he is the longest serving Chief Minister of the state of Gujarat.^[3] In July 2007 he became the longest serving Chief Minister in Gujarat's history when he had been in power for 2063 days continuously.^[4] He was elected again for a third term^[5] on 23 December 2007 in the state elections, which he had cast as a "referendum on his rule".^[6][7]

Personal life[link]

Modi was born in a middle class family in Vadnagar in Mehsana district of what was then Bombay State, India.^[8] During the Indo-Pak war in the mid sixties, even as a young boy, he volunteered to serve the soldiers in transit at railway stations.^[9] As a young man, he joined the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, a student organisation and was involved in the anti-corruption Nav Nirmāṇ ("Reconstruction") Movement. After working as a full time organiser for the organisation, he was later nominated as its representative in the Bharatiya Janata Party.^[10] As a teenager Modi used to run a tea stall with his brother.^[11] Modi completed his schooling in Vadnagar. He earned a masters degree in political science from Gujarat University.^[12]

Early activism and politics[link]

Modi was a pracharak (campaigner) in the RSS during his university years.^[12][13] He took up the challenging task of energising the party cadres in right earnest. In partnership with Shankersinh Vaghela, Modi set about creating a strong cadre base in Gujarat. In the initial period, Vaghela was seen as a mass leader, while Modi was recognised as a master strategist.

The party started gaining political mileage and formed a coalition government at the centre in April 1990. This partnership fell apart within a few months, but the BJP came to power with a two-thirds majority on its own in Gujarat in 1995. During this period, Modi was entrusted with the responsibility of organising two crucial national events, the Somnath to Ayodhya Rath Yatra (a political rally through India on a converted Toyota van) of L.K. Advani and a similar march from Kanyakumari (the southernmost part of India) to Kashmir in the North. After the exit of Shankarsingh Vaghela from the BJP, Keshubhai Patel was made Chief Minister while Narendra Modi was sent to New Delhi as a General Secretary of the Party.

In 1995, Modi was appointed the National Secretary of the party and given the charge of five major states in India. In 1998, he was promoted as the General Secretary (Organization), a post he held until October 2001. In 2001, Narendra Modi was chosen by the party to be the Chief Minister of Gujarat after the removal of chief minister Keshubhai Patel.

Tenure as Chief Minister of Gujarat[link]

Personality[link]

Modi is known for leading a frugal lifestyle. He has a personal staff of just three. He is known to be a workaholic Chief Minister and an introvert.^[14] He ordered the demolition of many Hindu temples that were built without proper government sanction which earned him the ire of VHP^[11] He is a crowd puller as a speaker. Modi has also tried to turn his image from an Hindu Nationalist politician to an image of able administrator. He wears business suits and is improving his command over the English language.^[15]

Awards and recognitions[link]

Modi was awarded Gujarat Ratna by Shri Poona Gujarati Bandhu Samaj at Ganesh Kala Krida Manch on celebration of centenary year.^[16]

Development of Gujarat[link]

As a Chief Minister, Modi started various 'yojanas' or plans. This includes:

• Panchamrut Yojana,^[17][18][19] a five-pronged strategy for an integrated development of the state,
• Sujalam Sufalam, a scheme to create a grid of water resources in Gujarat in an innovative step towards water conservation and its appropriate utilisation.
• Krishi Mahotsav – agricultural research labs for the land
• Chiranjeevi Yojana – To reduce infant mortality rate
• Matru Vandana – Providing preventive and curative services under the Reproductive and Child Health Programme
• Beti Bachao – Campaign against female infanticide to improve sex ratio
• Jyotigram Yojana – Provide electricity to every village
• Karmayogi Abhiyan – To educate and train government employees
• Kanya Kelavani Yojana – To encourage female literacy and education
• Balbhog Yojana – Midday meal scheme for students to encourage school attendance from poor backgrounds.^[20]

Vibrant Gujarat[link]

Vibrant Gujarat is a biennial Global Investors' Summit held by the Government of Gujarat in Gujarat, India. The event is aimed at bringing together business leaders, investors, corporations, thought leaders, policy and opinion makers; the summit is advertised as a platform to understand and explore business opportunities in the State of Gujarat. the event has been held continuously since 2003.

Gujarat earthquake[link]

The biggest challenge which he had to face when he took over as the Chief Minister, was the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the areas affected by the massive Gujarat Earthquake of January 2001.

Gujarat violence[link]

On 27 February 2002, a train was burned by a Muslim mob in the town of Godhra leading to 59 deaths, most of them Hindu pilgrims and activists returning from the holy city of Ayodhya.^[21] Riots broke out in the state after it was suspected to be caused by Muslims, leading to 1180 deaths, many of them Muslims. Modi administration was accused of inaction over the riots and for encouraging them.^[15] As an aftermath of the riots, there were calls for Modi to resign from his position as chief minister of Gujarat. The opposition parties stalled the national parliament over the issue. Even Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and Telugu Desam Party (TDP), allies of the BJP, asked for Modi's resignation.^[22][23] Modi submitted his resignation to the Governor and recommended the dissolution of the 10th Gujarat Legislative Assembly.^[24][25] In the following state re-elections the BJP, led by Modi, won 127 seats in the 182-member assembly.

In April 2009, the Supreme Court of India appointed a special team of investigators to look into the role Modi had played in the alleged anti-Muslim conspiracy.^[15] The team was appointed in response to the complaint of zakia Jafri, the widow of ex-Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, who was murdered in the riots.^[26] In December 2010, a Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) in its report to the Supreme Court seeking answers pertaining to the Ehsan Jafri case, submitted that they had found no evidence against Narendra Modi.^[27]

However in February 2011, the Times of India reported that a confidential report from the SIT indicted Modi on several counts of alleged complicity in the Gujarat riots of 2002.^[28] Most other sources have noted that the SIT report does not indict Modi for the riots due to lack of evidence.^[29][30] The Indian Express too said the report did not find any Modi involvement in the violence, though it did accuse him of watering down the seriousness of the situation.^[31] According to the Hindu, the report not only found that Modi tried to water down the seriousness of the situation, but Modi also implicitly justified the killings of Muslims, and failed to condemn the attacks on them.^[32] The Bharatiya Janata Party demanded an investigation into the publication of the report, claiming the leak was politically motivated.^[33]

The apex court refused to pass any order on the case and referred it to the Ahmedabad magistrate for a decision.^[34] In April 2012, a Special Investigation Team found absolved Modi of any involvement in the Gulberg massacre, arguably the worst episode of the riots.^[35]. On 7 May 2012, a Supreme Court-appointed amicus curiae, Raju Ramachandran observed that Modi can be prosecuted under sections 153 A (1) (a) & (b), 153 B (1), 166 and 505 (2) of the Indian Penal Code for promoting enmity among different groups during the 2002 Gujarat riots.^[36]. However the amicus report has been criticised by the Special Investigation Team for relying heavily on the testimony of a perjurer^[37].

2007 elections[link]

Modi made a speech at Mangrol in which he justified the alleged fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh, During the election campaign In response to Sonia Gandhi's speech calling him a "merchant of death",^[38] and referred to Sohrabuddin's killing. For this speech the Election Commission of India, a constitutional body governing election proceedings in India, cautioned Modi as it considered it as indulging in an activity which may aggravate existing differences between different communities.^[39] Modi won the election and continued his post as the Chief Minister Of Gujarat, he won with majority of votes of 122 seats out of 182 total assembly seats.^[40]

Conflicts with Governor Kamla Beniwal[link]

On 25 August 2011 Gujarat Governor Kamla Beniwal appointed Justice R A Mehta to the post of Lokyukta of Gujarat, a critical anti-corruption post that had been lying vacant since 2003. Justice R A Mehta was recommended for the post by the Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court in June. Since Governor Beniwal had made this decision without consulting and getting the approval of the chief minister and his council of ministers, the action angered Narendra Modi and his BJP party.^[41]

This marked the beginning of a strained relationship between Modi and the Governor. On 25 September 2011, Narendra Modi accused the Governor of running a parallel government in the state supported by the Congress. He demanded that she be recalled back.^[42] He also later accused her of delaying the progress of bills by not passing them.

The decision of the governor in the appointment of R A Mehta was challenged in the high court by the Modi government. The two member high court bench gave a split verdict on 10 October 2011. Later, a third member upheld the governor's decision in January 2012.^[43]

Foreign visits[link]

As the Chief Minister of the Gujarat State, to attract foreign investment in the state, Narendra Modi has made visits to foreign countries, including China and Singapore.

Narendra Modi made his first China visit in 2007 to invite investors Vibrant Gujarat Global Investor Summit,^[44] and second visit in November 2011. One month after the second visit to China, the Chinese Government released 13 Diamond traders from India jailed by the Shenzhen Customs, which the Chief Minister described as the consequece of his diplomatic efforts and statesmanship.^[45]

In 2005 Narendra Modi was denied of diplomatic visa to the United States, in addition to this visa denial, he was also revoked from his already granted B-1/B-2 visa.^[46]

Sadbhavna Mission[link]

In the late 2011-early 2012 Narandra Modi practised a series of fasts in the name of Sadbhavna Mission. The mission started on 17 September 2011 in Ahmedabad with 3 day fast with a view to strengthen the atmosphere of peace, unity and harmony in the state. He observed total 36 fasts in 26 districts, 8 cities including Ahmedabad.^[47]

Views and opinions[link]

Modi's position on terrorism[link]

On 18 July 2006 Modi delivered a speech criticising Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh "for his reluctance to revive anti-terror legislations" like the Prevention of Terrorism Act. He asked the Centre to empower states to invoke tougher laws in the wake of the blasts in Mumbai.^[48] Quoting Modi: