If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings- -nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If any contemporary political leader can be called an embodiment of these timeless lines by Rudyard Kipling, that would be the incumbent Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. Mr Modi is at ease with world leaders such as the presidents of the USA as well as the chai makers plying their trade in the busy streets of India.
Narendra Damodardas Modi was born on the 17th of September in 1950 in Vadnagar, India. He received his higher education from Gujarat University (1983) and the School of Open Learning, University of Delhi (1978). He became a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member during this time. Before becoming the premier, Mr Modi served as the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014. He is the Member of Parliament for Varanasi, a name sacred to Buddhists worldwide. It is with much gratitude that Buddhists celebrate his service to the Buddhist community in his capacity as the MP for Varanasi. In 2014, Narendra Modi led his party to victory in the elections to the lower chamber of the Indian parliament known as Lok Sabha. This remarkable victory resulted in him being elected as the 14th Prime Minister of India.
During his first tenure as the Prime Minister, Mr Modi implemented several measures that turned the underperforming Indian economy around and set it on the course to becoming one of the strongest and fastest-growing economies in the world. His government took measures to improve India’s transportation infrastructure and liberalized rules on direct foreign investment in India, thus opening the vast hitherto closed Indian market to the world. The Perimeter was also the driving force behind the move to effectively put a stop to dealings in “black money”, a considerable threat to the Indian banking system and economy. Mr Modi’s government achieved this goal by demonetizing and replacing 500 and 1,000 rupee banknotes with only a few hours’ notice. Next, Mr Modi injected a new lease of life to then slow moving Indian economy by centralizing the consumption tax system. These reforms were the keystones of the Modi re-election campaign.
In 2019, Mr. Modi became India’s first prime minister outside the Congress Party to be reelected after a full term. Almost immediately, the COVID-19 pandemic swept across India. The newly-reelected Prime Minister Modi took decisive action to combat the deadly virus outbreak in India while keeping the economy moving forward. During this trying period, India as a leading SAARC nation, under the leadership of Mr. Modi, had extended a helping hand to several member countries whose economies were crippled by the rapid spread of the disease. Sri Lanka as a beneficiary of this programme received vaccines, medicine and food from India.
One of the highlights of Mr. Modi’s administration is the recent Lunar Mission. The Chandrayaan Programme, also known as the Indian Lunar Exploration Programme by the Indian Space Research Organization, in its second lander and rover mission, successfully landed Chandrayaan-3 on the Moon on the 23rd of August 2023, making India the 4th country to land on the Moon and the first country to land on the Lunar South Pole region.
Among the many awards Prime Minister Modi has won, the Order of the Distinguished Rule of Izzuddin, Legion of Honour, Seoul Peace Prize, and CNN-IBN Indian of the Year are a few of the most prominent.
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And- -which is more- -you’ll be a Man, my son!
Narendra Damodardas Modi is a son Mother India can proudly claim as her own. Under his stewardship there is no doubt that India is very much on her way to realize her true potential as a leading nation of the world.
Happy birthday, Mr. Modi!
