Narendra Modi Biography

First Term (2001–2002)

On 27 February 2002, a train with several hundred passengers including large numbers of Hindu pilgrims was burned near Godhra, killing around 60 people. Following rumors that the fire was carried out by Muslim arsonists, anti-Muslim violence spread throughout Gujarat. Estimates of the death toll ranged from 900 to over 2,000, while several thousand more people were injured. The Modi government imposed a curfew in major cities, issued shoot-at-sight orders, and called for the army to prevent the violence from escalating. However, human rights organizations, opposition parties, and sections of the media all accused Gujarat's government of taking insufficient action against the riots, and even condoning it in some cases. Modi's decision to move the corpses of the Kar Sevaks who had been burned to death in Godhra to Ahmedabad had been criticised for inflaming the violence. In April 2009, the Supreme Court appointed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to inquire into the Gujarat government and Narendra Modi's role in the incidents of communal violence. The SIT reported to the court in December 2010 submitting that they did not find any substantial incriminating evidence against Modi of willfully allowing communal violence in the state.

Despite the SIT report, Modi's involvement in the events of 2002 has continued to be debated. Though the SIT absolved Modi in April 2012 of any involvement in the Gulbarg Society massacre, one of the many riots that occurred in 2002, the Supreme Court-appointed amicus curiae, Raju Ramachandran, observed on 7 May 2012 that Modi could be prosecuted for promoting enmity among different groups during the 2002 Gujarat riots. His main contention was that the evidence should be examined by a court of law because the SIT was required to investigate but not to judge. His report was criticised by the SIT for relying heavily on the testimony of Sanjiv Bhatt, who they said had fabricated the documents used as evidence. In July 2013, victim Zakia Jafri, widow of Congress leader Ehsan Jafri who was killed in the Gulbarg Society massacre, alleged that the SIT was suppressing evidence however her plea against the clean-chit to Modi was rejected by the Courts. On 26 December 2013, an Ahmedabad court which was asked by the Supreme Court to handle the case, accepted the clean chit given to Modi in relation to the riots.

In 2012, Maya Kodnani, another of Modi's former ministers from 2007 – 2009, was convicted of having participated in the Naroda Patiya massacre during the 2002 riots. She was both the first female and the first MLA to be convicted in a post-Godhra riots case. While initially announcing that it would seek the death penalty for Kodnani, Modi's government eventually pardoned her in 2013 and settled for a prison sentence.

Second Term (2002–2007)

Despite using anti-Muslim rhetoric during the campaign, Modi's emphasis shifted during his second term from Hindutva to the economic development of Gujarat. Modi's decisions curtailed the influence of organizations of the Sangh Parivar such as the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) and the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), which had become entrenched in Gujarat after the decline of Ahmedabad's textile industry. Modi dropped Gordhan Zadafia, an ally of his former Sangh co–worker and VHP state chief Praveen Togadia, from the cabinet ministry. When the BKS launched a farmers' agitation, Modi ordered their eviction from houses provided by the state government. Modi's decision to demolish 200 illegal temples in Gandhinagar deepened the rift with VHP. Various organisations of the Sangh were no longer consulted nor informed of Modi's administrative decisions prior to their enactment.

The changes brought by Modi in the period 2002–2007 has led to Gujarat being called an attractive investment destination. Aditi Phadnis writes that "there was sufficient anecdotal evidence pointing to the fact that corruption had gone down significantly in the state... if there was to be any corruption, Modi had to know about it". Modi started financial and technology parks in the state. During the 2007 Vibrant Gujarat summit, real estate investment deals worth ₹6.6 trillion were signed in Gujarat.

Despite his focus on economic issues during the second term, Modi continued to be criticised for his relationship with Muslims. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, then Prime Minister of India, who had asked Modi not to discriminate between citizens in the aftermath of the 2002 Gujarat violence and had pushed for his resignation as Chief Minister of Gujarat, distanced himself from Modi and reached out to North Indian Muslims before the 2004 elections to the Lok Sabha. After the elections, Vajpayee held that the violence in Gujarat had been one of the reasons for BJP's electoral defeat and acknowledged that not removing Modi immediately after the Gujarat violence was a mistake.

Third Term (2007–2012)

The Sardar Sarovar Dam, undergoing a height increase in 2006.

Successive BJP governments under Patel and Modi supported NGOs and communities in the creation of infrastructure projects for conservation of groundwater. Gujarat is a semi-arid state and, according to Tushaar Shah, was "... never known for agrarian dynamism". By December 2008, 500,000 structures had been constructed, of which 113,738 were check dams. While most check dams remained empty during the pre-monsoon season, they helped recharge the aquifers that lie beneath them. 60 of the 112 tehsils which were found to have over–exploited the groundwater table in 2004 had regained their normal groundwater level by 2010, meaning that Gujarat had managed to increase its groundwater levels at a time when they were falling in all other Indian states. As a result, production of genetically-modified Bt cotton, which could now be irrigated using tube wells, increased to become the largest in India. The boom in cotton production and utilization of semi–arid land saw the agriculture growth rate of Gujarat increase to 9.6% in the period 2001–2007. Though public irrigation measures in the central and southern areas, such as the Sardar Sarovar Project, have not been as successful in achieving their aims, for the decade 2001–2010, Gujarat recorded an agricultural growth rate of 10.97%, the highest among all Indian states. However, sociologists have pointed out that the growth rate under the Congress government during 1992-97 was at 12.9%.

The Narendra Modi government also succeeded in bringing electricity to every village in Gujarat, although Dipankar Banerjee points out that all but 170 of them had been electrified under the previous Congress administration. Modi also greatly changed the system of power distribution in the state, with a significant impact on farmers. The state greatly expanded the Jyotigram Yojana scheme, in which the agricultural electricity supply was rewired to separate it from other rural power supplies. The electricity supplied was then rationed to fit scheduled demand for irrigation, resulting in a cost reduction. Initial farmer protests died down when the farmers who benefited found that supply had become more regular. An assessment study found that corporations and large farmers had significantly benefited from the policy, but that small farmers and laborers had been negatively impacted.

Fourth Term (2012–present)

The Gujarat International Finance Tec-City considered as the pet project of Narendra Modi.

Further information: Gujarat legislative assembly election, 2012

In the 2012 Gujarat legislative assembly elections, Modi won from the constituency of Maninagar with a majority of 86,373 votes over Sanjiv Bhatt's wife, Shweta, who was contesting for the Indian National Congress. The BJP won 115 of the 182 seats, continuing the majority that the party has had throughout Modi's tenure, and allowing the party to form the government, as it has in Gujarat since 1995

In later by-elections, the BJP won an additional four assembly seats and 2 Lok Sabha seats that were all held by the Indian National Congress prior to the by-elections, even though Modi never campaigned for its candidates. This brought the number of seats held by the BJP in the state assembly up to 119.