Narendra Modi: the man behind the new confident, self-reliant, and powerful India

By: Laimayum Bashanta Sharma
Shri Narendra Damodar Das Modi was born on 17th September, 1950 to Shri Damodar Das Mulchand Modi and Smt. Hiraben Damodardas Modi, in a small town in northern Gujarat, Vadnagar (Mehsana District). A post graduate from Gujarat University, Ahmedabad and married to Smt. Jashodaben Modi but he left family life in service to the nation.
Early life: His father traded oil and ran a tea shop, where Narendra, as he has narrated, served customers as a child. He joined the local branch of the RSS at the age of eight, as it was the only extracurricular activity in town. He became a permanent member of the RSS in the late 1960s and went to live in the Hedgewar Bhawan (regional RSS headquarters) in Maninagar, an area of Ahmedabad. He worked there as assistant to the prant pracharak Lakshmanrao Inamdar. Modi viewed him as his mentor. Modi was made a pracharak in 1972. The following year, he became involved in the Navnirman protest movement, a movement against corruption started by students in Gujarat. He took part in the movement after the RSS deputed him to the local branch of the ABVP, its student union. In 1975, he went underground to escape the Emergency declared by Indira Gandhi, which had landed a good number of RSS cadres in prison. Throughout the emergency he operated under the secret identity of Prakash. His task, in addition to distributing anti government tracts under cover, involved looking after the families of RSS prisoners and soliciting aid from Gujaratis who had emigrated abroad.
It was L. K. Advani who enlisted Modi’s services for the party. Modi was thus deputed to the BJP in 1987, taking up the key post of sangathan mantri (organization secretary) at the head of the party’s Gujarat branch. He became a prominent figure during the Ekta Yatra (unity pilgrimage), led by the new BJP president Murli Manohar Joshi, in 1991. Modi was elevated to the post of national organizer, in charge of a procession that departed from Kanyakumari (southern tip of India) to Srinagar in the north to demonstrate the unity of the Indian nation. It was during the last leg of the Ekta Yatra, he waved the tricolor national flag at Lal Chowk, Srinagar, Kashmir and sang the national anthem in open defiance of the death threat issued by terrorists. He won the heart and mind of the people of India with this daring act. Long story short Swargiya Atal Bihari Vajpayee offered to have him replace Keshubhai Patel, whose popularity was on the wane, he answered, “That is not my work. I have been away from Gujarat for six long years. I am not familiar with the issues. What will I do there? It is not a field of my liking. I don’t know anyone.” Modi did not like politics—as is appropriate for many RSS cadres who consider politics dirty and politicians morally corrupt. While Modi did not see himself as a political figure, he nevertheless agreed to replace Patel as chief minister of Gujarat in the fall of 2001. The rest we all know is history.
His vision of a new India from my perspective
Prime Minister Narendra Modi ‘s famous slogan “Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas Sabka Vishwas Sabka Prayas” An all inclusive growth and development of the nation with everyone’s trust and everyone’s efforts is the most powerful manifestation of the spirit of the Constitution said PM Modi. This is the vision of PM Modi.
Addressing the nation on 75th Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a call for “Sabka Prayas” (everyone’s efforts) along with “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas” for building a self-reliant India.
Speaking from the ramparts of the Red Fort in Delhi, PM Modi said, “Amrit Kaal is 25 years away, but we don’t have to wait till then. We must start the change now to build a new India to celebrate the 100 years of Independence. With sabka saath, sabka vikas and everyone’s effort, we will achieve our goal.”
“We have to ensure we meet our goal of building Aatmanirbhar Bharat when we celebrate 100 years of India’s Independence,” he added.
PM Narendra Modi also drew the blueprint for the 100 years of Independence. He said, “Our goal for the 100th year is that together, we make prosperity, good governance, discipline, building an ideal India, an India that runs with the world.”
The list of major achievements below maybe inadequate however attempt is being made to cover important mega government schemes, national security, geo-political and independent foreign policy related strategic moves undertaken by PM Modi that enhances India’s reputation as a global power.
1. Demonetisation: ON November 8, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a sudden move, announced his government’s decision to discontinue the legal tender status of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes and instead introduce new 500 and 2,000 denomination currency. This ‘demonetisation’ policy, according to the PM, was aimed at tackling black money, counterfeit currency, disrupting criminal activities and terror financing. Demonetisation deterred terror funding, break the back bone of the Maoist and insurgents and boosted digitalisation massively.
2. GST
The Revolution Brought by GST in India:
The introduction of GST or Good and Services Tax is touted as the biggest economic transformation in the country after India became an independent nation. The GST model was first conceptualized by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpyee and it was implemented by PM Modi. Before 1st July 2017, India was plagued with numerous Indirect Taxes in different sectors, which were not properly regulated. To have all of these under a single roof, the current government rolled out the Goods and Service Tax (GST) in a historic midnight event at the Parliament. It took 17 long years for GST to get implemented. This taxation scheme was implemented to scrape out all the other rampant taxes, and put 1.35 billion Indians under ‘one nation, one tax’ scheme. GST comprises of several taxes like VAT, Central Excise Law, Octroi, etc. which were earlier charged separately.
3. Digital India: The vision of Digital India programme is to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.
Digital India Mission is mainly focused on three areas: Providing digital infrastructure as a source of utility to every citizen. Governance and services on demand. To look after the digital empowerment of every citizen.
Based on the foundations laid down in the form of Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and Mobile (JAM) trinity and other digital initiatives of the government, today the robust integrated digital system removed 9 crore fake beneficiaries from the system in the last 8 years thus a massive leak has been plugged. Digital health solutions across the healthcare ecosystem have proven to be of immense benefit over the years, with CoWIN, Arogya Setu and e-Sanjeevani further demonstrating the role technology can play in enabling access to healthcare. It is estimated that a campaign like digital India can uplift the economy of India by one trillion and now the government is working towards transforming it into a five trillion economy. The digital Literacy of India has increased too. It has made us all survive times like a pandemic.
4. Jan Dhan Yojana: Launched in 2014, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana is aimed at ensuring universal access to banking facilities with at least one basic banking account for every household. Under this scheme, a savings bank account is opened for a person. There is no need to maintain any minimum balance in these Jan Dhan accounts. The interest is earned on the deposit in this account. The account holder is also provided with a Rupay Debit card, an accidental insurance cover of ¹ 1 lakh which was later hiked to ¹ 2 lakh for those who opened the account after August 28, 2018. The Jan Dhan accounts are eligible for direct bank transfer and other schemes.
5. Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana: Prime Minister Narendra Modi had introduced this scheme for girls in 2015. This scheme is being run through post offices. According to Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana, the parents can open accounts for their daughters below ten years of age. The interest rate under this scheme stands at 7.8 per cent.
6. Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana: This scheme was launched in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh by PM Modi in 2016. The scheme was introduced to make cooking fuel such as LPG available to the rural and deprived households which were using traditional cooking fuels like firewood, coal, cow-dung cakes etc, the official website states. As of September 1, 2022, a total of 9.49,69,244 connections have been released under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana. On the other hand, more than 1.50 crore connections have been released under Ujjwala Yojana 2.0.
7. PM Mudra Yojana: The scheme was launched by PM Modi in 2015 to provide loans up to ¹ 10 lakh to the non-corporate, non-farm small and micro enterprises. The loans are given by commercial banks, regional rural banks, small finance banks, micro-finance institutions (MFI) and non-banking financial companies. The borrower can approach any of the lending institutions mentioned above or can apply online through govt. portal www.udyamimitra.in
8. Atal Pension Yojna(APY) The APY is a guaranteed pension scheme of the Government of India administered by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA). The scheme allows any citizen of India in the age group of 18 to 40 years to join through the bank or post office branches where one has a savings bank account. Under the scheme, a subscriber would receive a minimum guaranteed pension of Rs.1,000-5,000 per month from the age of 60 years, depending upon his contribution. The same pension would be paid to the spouse after the demise of the subscriber, and on demise of both the subscriber and the spouse, the pension wealth accumulated till age 60 of the subscriber would be returned to the nominee. The Atal Pension Yojana saw a huge increase in subscriber base by 29.71 per cent on a yearly basis from 281.71 lakh in April 2021 to 365.39 lakh in April 2022
9. Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) was launched by the Prime Minister on 22nd January, 2015 at Panipat, Haryana. BBBP addresses the declining Child Sex Ratio (CSR) and related issues of women empowerment over a life-cycle continuum. It is a tri-ministerial effort of Ministries of Women and Child Development, Health & Family Welfare and Human Resource Development. The key elements of the scheme include Enforcement of PC & PNDT Act, nation-wide awareness and advocacy campaign and multi-sectoral action in select 100 districts (low on CSR) in the first phase. There is a strong emphasis on mindset change through training, sensitization, awareness raising and community mobilization on ground.
10. Swachh Bharat Mission On October 2, 2022, Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) will celebrates its eighth anniversary. It was launched on October 2, 2014 to fulfil the vision of a cleaner India by October 2, 2019. The objective of the Mission was to eliminate open defecation, eradicate manual scavenging, and promote scientific solid waste management.
11. PMMY Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana (PMMY) is a scheme launched on April 8, 2015 for providing loans upto 10 lakh to the non-corporate, non-farm small/micro enterprises. These loans are classified as MUDRA loans under PMMY. These loans are given by Commercial Banks, RRBs, Small Finance Banks, Cooperative Banks, MFIs and NBFCs. The borrower can approach any of the lending institutions mentioned above or can apply online through portal.
12. Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana: Introduced in 2018, the Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana is a central government scheme which provides an income support of ¹ 6,000 per year in three equal instalments to all land holding poor families. According to the scheme’s official website, the definition of a family for the scheme is husband, wife and minor children. It is the state government and union territory administration’s responsibility to identify the farmer families eligible for the scheme. The funds will be directly transferred to the bank accounts of these families.
13. Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (or Saubhagya) The new scheme, Saubhagya, seeks to ensure universal household electrification, that is, in both rural and urban areas.
14. Universal Health Insurance Ayushman Bharat The Health Minister informed that Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) has crossed the landmark of 1 crore digitally linked health records with over 27 lakh records linked in a day. As on February 24, 2022, 17,33,69,087 Ayushman Bharat Health Accounts have been created and 10,114 doctors and 17,319 health facilities have been registered in Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM). The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) aims to develop the backbone necessary to support the integrated digital health infrastructure of the country. It will bridge the existing gap amongst different stakeholders of the Healthcare ecosystem through digital highways.
15. Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan was initiated on 12 May 2020 by the honourable Prime Minister. The covid pandemic triggered an unprecedented economic crisis that paved the way for this movement. It was proportionate that the self-reliant India does not advocate a self centred system. A total economic package of 20 trillion rupees was allocated to carryover the Abhiyan. Economy, Infrastructure, Technology driven system, Vibrant demography and Demand were the five pillars of the Abhiyan. The call given by the prime minister laid a strong foundation for supporting small scale industries which makes the livelihood of millions of people in India. It led way to the collaboration of industries to the sustainable development. It supported the labourers who lost their job in this pandemic. As a citizen we should support the PM’s clarion call “vocal for local” as today’s local product can become tomorrow’s global brand.
16. The PLI scheme or Production Linked Incentive scheme was launched in March 2020 to boost the domestic manufacturing sector.As a part of the Make in India initiative, this scheme offers an incentive to eligible firms on incremental sales for five years.This scheme works to reduce down the import bills and boost up domestic production.However, PLI Yojana invites foreign companies to set up their units in India and encourages domestic enterprises to expand their production units.
An outlay of INR 1.97 Lakh Crores for the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Schemes across 14 key sectors, to create national manufacturing champions and to create 60 lakh new jobs, and an additional production of 30 lakh crore during next 5 years.
17. PM GatiShakti National Master Plan (PMGS-NMP) was launched on 13th October 2021 for providing multimodal connectivity infrastructure to various economic zones. The ¹ 100 lakh crore mega plan was launched with a digital platform to bring 16 ministries together for integrated planning and implementation of infrastructure connectivity projects.
18. PM-GKAY the PM-GKAY(Garib Kalyan Yojana) has been in effect since April 2020, making it the world’s largest food security programme. So far, the government has spent over Rs. 2.60 lakh crore, with another Rs. 80,000 crore set to be invested over the next six months through September 2022, bringing the total expenditure under PM-GKAY to roughly Rs. 3.40 lakh crore. This will benefit over 80 million people across India and, like before, will be totally sponsored by the Indian government.
19. Agnipath scheme in the Indian Armed forces is a scheme wherein selected candidates(Agniveers) will be enrolled for a period of four years. After completing this period, Agniveers will be offered an opportunity to apply for enrolment in the permanent cadre.
This will not only address manpower shortfall in the armed forces but also create a skilled and disciplined workforce to cater to the demands of the private as well as public sectors. It will also gradually redress the ever increasing gigantic pension fund that is detrimental to military capital expenditure to fast track military modernisation.
20. NLP: The National Logistics Policy aims to promote seamless movement of goods and enhances the competitiveness of Indian industries. Also, it seeks to reduce the logistics cost from 16 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to a global average of 8 per cent by 2030 to make our export highly competitive in the international market and convert India into a manufacturing hub of the world as an alternative to manufacturing giant like China.
Other notable major achievements
1. Article 370 abrogation and integration of Kashmir to India. The decision of the Centre to abrogate Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian Constitution that gave special status to the state of Jammu & Kashmir was the biggest achievement of PM Modi. History has proved that the aim of the special status was separatism and not integration. A mission impossible made possible under the leadership of Hon. PM Modi and Hon. Home Minister Amit Shah.
2. Surgical Strike in Myanmar and Pakistan & Air Surgical Strike. India had never pursue a proactive policy against terrorists that operated from across the border. In 26/11 Mumbai attack the then UPA government indulged in dossier diplomacy against Pakistan. However, under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi India retaliated militarily against the perpetrators of terror attacks against Indian security forces from terror hideouts based in neighbouring Pakistan and Myanmar.
3. The CAA(Citizenship Amendment Act) was passed to provide Indian citizenship to persecuted immigrants who entered India on or before 31st December 2014. The Act was passed for persecuted minority immigrants of six different religions such as Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.
4. Ram Mandir and reclaiming past glory:
It was in 1991 the less known Narendra Modi vowed to not visit Ayodhya until the construction of Ram Mandir begins. The foundational stone of the historic Ram Mandir was laid by the Prime Minister himself on 5th of August 2020. It marked the end of years of injustice meted out to Hindus. A historic error has finally been corrected. The nation stands united and PM Modi has played a huge role in fulfilling the dream of billion+ Indians.
5. Foreign Policy- a paradigm shift:
Under the stewardship of PM Modi the paradigm shift from outdated and insignificant none align movement(NAM) to all alignment foreign policy whether with the western bloc or BRIC or SCO whichever serves the national interest has happened for the first time. India had the political will to retaliate firmly against expansionist bully China, convinced the US administration from imposing Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) sanction for buying S-400 air defence system from Russia.
6. Vaccine Maitri (English: Vaccine Friendship) is a humanitarian initiative undertaken by the Indian government to provide COVID-19 vaccines to countries around the world. The government started providing vaccines from 20 January 2021. It was being done in keeping with India’s stated commitment to using India’s vaccine production and delivery capacity to help all of the human fight the Covid pandemic.
The never ending list of achievements (many important ones are left out due to word constraints) is mind boggling or hard to belief for many hardcore critics of the prime minister especially those representing the opposition political parties. Without proper verification of the government data they would resort to dry argument using their favourite logical fallacy to target the Prime Minister. Whether they live in perpetual denial or dismissive mode, the world recognises brand Modi.
(The author is a Spokesperson, BJP Manipur Pradesh)