May 14, 2024 • 17 mins
Narendra Modi is arguably the world’s most popular politician. With nearly 1 billion Indians eligible to vote in a six-week election that concludes on June 4, Modi and his party are expected to win a majority for the third time in a row and extend their decade in power.
But there are also concerns over human rights and religious and press freedoms that many political leaders, CEOs and bankers in the West appear willing to overlook. On our first episode of The Big Take Asia, host K. Oanh Ha and Bloomberg’s Sudhi Ranjan Sen chart how Modi built up so much power over the last several decades – and why he is both a beloved and divisive figure.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Last June, the White House hosted an elaborate state dinner
featuring an entirely plant based menu, no meat, no eggs.
Their vegetarian guest of honor Indian Prime Minister Nrender Modi.
Although Mody has been at the center of Indian politics
for over a decade and he's visited the US plenty
of times, it was his first official state visit to
(00:33):
the White House since becoming PM. It's considered the highest
honor for a visiting leader and a chance to build
a stronger friendship over food, wine, and music, or, on
this occasion, stuffed portobello mushrooms and cardamom infused strawberry shortcake.
Here's US President Joe Biden welcoming Mody.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Welcome to mister Rhymnis, Welcome back to the White House.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
I've long believed that.
Speaker 5 (01:03):
The relationship between the United States and India is one
of that will be one of the defining relationships of
the twenty first century.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
I'm honored to be the first to have you here
in fifteen years.
Speaker 6 (01:17):
Primerster Modi, Welcome back to the White House.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
But on the same day, outside the gates of the
White House, some people were much less welcoming. The protest
group was small, only about several dozen people, but they
spoke to much larger fears among religious minorities back home.
In India, where Hindus make up the majority of the
(01:44):
nation's one point four billion people, there has been.
Speaker 7 (01:48):
Espilation and acutional Sikhs and Bilious to be passion and
other minorities like Musa Christians.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
For years, Modi has been dogged by accusations that he
has stoked religious division in India and not done enough
when that division has turned deadly, And some two decades ago,
US officials even denied him a visa to enter the US,
citing severe violations of religious freedom. And yet here he
(02:18):
was last summer, being feted by President Biden and having
the crowd at the White House cheering his name. So
how has Modi been able to rehabilitate his image, build
up so much power, remains so popular in India and
increasingly abroad. Why is he it once so beloved and polarizing,
(02:41):
and what does it tell us about where the seventy
three year old leader is taking India home to nearly
a fifth of humanity over the next five years.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Welcome to the Big Take Asia from Bloomberg News. I'm Wanha.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Every week we take you inside some of the world's
biggest and most powerful economies and the markets, tycoons and
businesses that drive this ever shifting region. Today the first
episode in a two part series on the most powerful
Indian leader in years?
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Who is Narendra Modi?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
To understand Modi's rise to power and the driving force
behind it, we went back to where it all started.
Narendra Modi was born in this small town of Vadnagar
in western India, in Gujarat State.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
It is a town where Hindus and Muslims both live.
You have mosques, you have Hindu temples, both practice religion
quite freely.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Sudi ran Jansen has been covering Indian politics for nearly
three decades. He visited Modi's hometown earlier this year and
met some of his childhood friends. They told him that
as a kid, Mody was religious.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Like One of the friends we spoke to used to
swim with him every day and he told us they
would all get up by six o'clock, start swimming, go across,
swim across the lake to the temple, pray there come
back and then go to school.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Mody says he grew up poor and that he helped
his father with his teacart business. He likes to tell
these stories on the campaign trail, where they make him
relatable to hundreds of millions of Indians living in poverty.
His friends told Sudy that growing up, he shared rooms
with siblings in a small house. There was no electricity
(04:40):
or even a toilet. It was here in his home
state of Gujarat where Mody attended meetings of the group
that would eventually change his life. The Rashtriya Swamzevak Sang
or the RSS.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
The artists. It's a Hindu first organization. They seeing hymns
that are these press. They have something which is called
the Shakas, a morning gathering. It's an organization that also
puts much focus on reaching out to community and community service.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
The group is open only to Hindu males. It's also
one of the few that offers activities for use in
small towns across India. And this group has a checkered past.
Two years before Modi was born, an RSS member assassinated
Mahatma Gandhi. That's right, Gandhi. The icon of India. The
(05:36):
RSS believes India belongs only to Hindus. According to India's
twenty eleven census, about eighty percent of India's population is
Hindu and more than fourteen percent are Muslims.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
Then you've got other minorities like Sikhs, like Christians, you
have Jews in this country also. It's a multi religious,
multi ethnic, multi lingual country.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Constitution of India says everyone has a right to freedom
of religion, and its preamble states that India is a
secular country. But the RSS says India should be a
Hindu nation. And for Mody that was appealing.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
One can understand with the artisis's ideology and the idea
that it's a hindunation. India should be a indonation and
Hindu first ideology. For a young mind, it is a
very very captivating idea.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
In his teenage years, the seeds planted by the RSS
would spawn a defiant streak in Modi. When he was
about eighteen years old, Modi's family arranged a marriage for him,
but shortly after the wedding ceremony, he abandoned his wife
and devoted his life to Hinduism.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
We know very little about his wife. We also not
seen him speak ever about his wife, and that's an
area that the Prime Minister himself hasn't talked about at on.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
After he left his wife, Mody said he headed to
the Himalayas to go wherever God wanted to take me.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
And his friends say that he always says that I
don't want to do this lift this normal life. I
want to do something that is out of the ordinary.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
After two years in the Himalayas, he decided to head
back to Gudrant and deepen his commitment to the RSS.
While the RSS calls itself a social cultural organization that
doesn't stand in elections, it does have a political arm,
the Baratiya Junta Party or the BJP. Mody's talents as
(07:38):
an organizer and public speaker prompted the RSS to eventually
send him to work on its front lines. His big
break came in nineteen ninety when he was involved in
an immensely divisive issue that would royal the nation's politics.
Mody found himself front and center of a controversial effort
to build a Hindu temple in the northern city of Ayodia,
(07:59):
where had stood since fifteen twenty eight. Hindu nationalists say
the site is the birthplace of Ram, whom many consider
to be the supreme being of the universe. And many
Hindu nationalists believe that the site was previously home to
a Hindu temple and that the mosque was deliberately built
there in an affront to Hinduism.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
Here is what legend has it, the birthplace of Ram,
where there's supposed to be a temple which was demolished
by a ruler, and this is how Hindus have been treated,
So it immediately appeals to the Hindu sentiment.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
The BJP wanted to build a temple in place of
the mosque, and they organized a huge rally to build support,
a ten thousand kilometer six week rally across the country.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
And Hodi is a man who's organizing this, as in
deciding on where do they stop, where do they go,
what do they say?
Speaker 2 (09:00):
The rally featured a truck made to look like an
ancient chariot.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
It is a toyota that is kind of rephurbished and
repurposed to look like a chariot. And the rally starts
off from Gujarat, you know, meandering all through all across India.
Talking to people about how the Hindus must rise.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
The BJP turned the rally into a massive movement. Hindus
from across central India not only donated money, but actual
bricks to build the temple. Some of them came from
far away, walking or taking trains for hundreds of miles
to get that temple built. The rally also helped Mody
get noticed by his bosses and he.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
Gets recognized for his ability to organize, for his ability
to understand what works politically, and he's taken very very
seriously with the BJP.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
But just two years later, a Hindu mob decided to
get the temple the RSS wanted by tearing down the
mosque themselves. Here's how the AP reported the destruction of
the holy site.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
At first it.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Was only a few, but before long the mob mentality
would take over. A few would become scores, then hundreds
and thousands. Tired of their leaders temporizing, fired by religious zeal,
they attacked.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
The destruction of the mosque is a watershed moment. It
raised questions about India's secular credentials, and it escalated tensions
between Hindus and Muslims, which already had flared up. Regularly
since India's founding. It would also play a vital role
in a major turning point for Modi A decade later,
(10:46):
a particularly brutal episode of religious violence would shake the
country but present Mody and the BJP an opportunity to
unite the Hindu majority in a way that had never
been done before, giving Modi and his party tremendous power.
After the break, Modi takes over Gujarat and violence breaks
(11:07):
out against the backdrop of rising religious tensions, the BJP's
fortunes rose, as did Modis. In two thousand and one,
Modi took over the government in his home state of Gujarat,
but just a few months later, a large, deadly attack,
(11:28):
this time on Hindu pilgrims, would trigger a series of
events that would scar Modi's reputation for decades to come.
On February twenty seventh, two thousand and two, a large
number of Hindu pilgrims were on a train returning from
a Yodia to Ahemdabad, the largest city in Gujarat.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
It so happens that there are pilgrims who are returning
from Ayodia as it is passing this area called gudra
it Is attack, gouts are set on fire.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
At least fifty nine people were killed. Modi and other
officials were accused of framing the attack in a way
that pointed the finger at Muslims. Hindu mobs raged through
the state, burning their neighbors alive in some cases, while
Muslims also attacked Hindus. More than one thousand people died
in the violence, most of them Muslims.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Everybody attacked us, even the police. They powed kerosene an
asseid on us and setizen fire.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
When the riots read.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Modi was accused of conspiring with bureaucrats and police officers,
ordering police not to respond to calls for help as
Muslim neighborhoods came under attack. Modi denied all the allegations. Eventually,
thirty one Muslims were convicted for starting the fire, a
verdict upheld by the Gujarat High Court in twenty seventeen.
(12:52):
In two thousand and eight, India Supreme Court appointed a
special investigative team to probe the actions of Modi and
other officials. It eventually found that there was no prosecutable
evidence to bring a case forward, a conclusion that was
then challenged in the courts. But it was only two
years ago, two decades after the riots, that the Supreme
Court officially cleared Modi of any wrongdoing once and for all.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
But questions about.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
What Mody did or didn't do during the riots persisted
despite his denials.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
One of the major things that have haunted or kind
of come up again and again is the fact that
he did not or his government and his police under
him did not rush to the rescue of Muslims immediately
and therefore people were killed.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
These accusations have haunted Mody. You can hear it in
the pressing questions from reporter Karantha Parr, who interviewed Mody
in two thousand and seven for CNN IBN.
Speaker 7 (13:52):
India Today on two separate occasions, has declared that you
are the most official chief minister and yet despite that,
people's you'll call you do your face and nass murderer
and they accuse you of being prejudiced against Muslims. Do
you have an image problem?
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Mody's response to this question was, essentially, there aren't a
lot of people accusing me of this, literally only a handful.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
I think it's not.
Speaker 6 (14:19):
Proper to say people there are two or three person
those who used to dog in this terminology, and I
always say God bless them.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
There's a bit of back and forth. Mody appears to
look calm, the journalist continues to press him, and then
Mody abruptly ends the interview.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
It lasts all of three minutes.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
And Mody said in an interview later quoted by Times
Now that he did absolutely the right thing in two
thousand and two.
Speaker 6 (14:58):
I'mists I'm a patuity. Nothing is it wrong. I'm a
born Hindu, nothing is it wrong. So I'm a Hindu
national list. So you can say, yes, I'm a list.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Yet the criticism of Modi didn't just come from within India.
The US, UK and EU all denied him visus over
allegations stemming from the riots. But in the face of
all this criticism, Modi would start a campaign to rebuild
his image, quietly laying the groundwork to triple his party
(15:31):
supporters and become one of India's most powerful figures in decades,
power that would soon turn him from international pariah to
literally being embraced by global leaders and wealthy tycoons.
Speaker 5 (15:45):
When foreigners think of new India, they think of a
new Gujarat. How did this transformation happen because of one leader.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
He would turn India into a place everywhere one is talking.
Speaker 5 (16:00):
About our beloved leader who has emerged as the greatest
global leader of our times. And he is Shane narendr
Vhai Modi, the most successful prime minister in India's history.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
Business loves it so vibrant Gujarad and his friendship with
billionnaires and gujar Riots are all kind of intertwined.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
So how does Mody turn one of the biggest political
crises in his favor to become the most powerful man
India scene in decades. That's in our next episode, Part two,
Narentro Modi's Big Comeback. This is the Big Take Asia
(16:54):
from Bloomberg News.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
I'm wanh.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
This episode was produced by Young Young and Naomi. It
was edited by Caitlin Kenney, Daniel ten Kate, Emma O'Brien,
Nishantahia and Jeanette Rodriguez. It was mixed by Alex Suguiera
and Blake Maples and the story was fact checked by
Thomas lu and David Fox. Special thanks to Sanjai pr
Supriya Batra, taymor Soban Niam Mushaven, Elizabeth Ponso, and the
(17:20):
Bloomberg Originals team. Nicole Beamster Bower is our executive producer,
and Sage Bauman is Bloomberg's Head of Podcasts.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Thanks for listening to The Big Take, Asia.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Please follow this show wherever you listen to podcasts. See
you don't miss Part two of Narender Modi
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Last June, the White House hosted an elaborate state dinner
featuring an entirely plant based menu, no meat, no eggs.
Their vegetarian guest of honor Indian Prime Minister Nrender Modi.
Although Mody has been at the center of Indian politics
for over a decade and he's visited the US plenty
of times, it was his first official state visit to
(00:33):
the White House since becoming PM. It's considered the highest
honor for a visiting leader and a chance to build
a stronger friendship over food, wine, and music, or, on
this occasion, stuffed portobello mushrooms and cardamom infused strawberry shortcake.
Here's US President Joe Biden welcoming Mody.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Welcome to mister Rhymnis, Welcome back to the White House.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
I've long believed that.
Speaker 5 (01:03):
The relationship between the United States and India is one
of that will be one of the defining relationships of
the twenty first century.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
I'm honored to be the first to have you here
in fifteen years.
Speaker 6 (01:17):
Primerster Modi, Welcome back to the White House.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
But on the same day, outside the gates of the
White House, some people were much less welcoming. The protest
group was small, only about several dozen people, but they
spoke to much larger fears among religious minorities back home.
In India, where Hindus make up the majority of the
(01:44):
nation's one point four billion people, there has been.
Speaker 7 (01:48):
Espilation and acutional Sikhs and Bilious to be passion and
other minorities like Musa Christians.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
For years, Modi has been dogged by accusations that he
has stoked religious division in India and not done enough
when that division has turned deadly, And some two decades ago,
US officials even denied him a visa to enter the US,
citing severe violations of religious freedom. And yet here he
(02:18):
was last summer, being feted by President Biden and having
the crowd at the White House cheering his name. So
how has Modi been able to rehabilitate his image, build
up so much power, remains so popular in India and
increasingly abroad. Why is he it once so beloved and polarizing,
(02:41):
and what does it tell us about where the seventy
three year old leader is taking India home to nearly
a fifth of humanity over the next five years.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Welcome to the Big Take Asia from Bloomberg News. I'm Wanha.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Every week we take you inside some of the world's
biggest and most powerful economies and the markets, tycoons and
businesses that drive this ever shifting region. Today the first
episode in a two part series on the most powerful
Indian leader in years?
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Who is Narendra Modi?
Speaker 2 (03:24):
To understand Modi's rise to power and the driving force
behind it, we went back to where it all started.
Narendra Modi was born in this small town of Vadnagar
in western India, in Gujarat State.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
It is a town where Hindus and Muslims both live.
You have mosques, you have Hindu temples, both practice religion
quite freely.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Sudi ran Jansen has been covering Indian politics for nearly
three decades. He visited Modi's hometown earlier this year and
met some of his childhood friends. They told him that
as a kid, Mody was religious.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Like One of the friends we spoke to used to
swim with him every day and he told us they
would all get up by six o'clock, start swimming, go across,
swim across the lake to the temple, pray there come
back and then go to school.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Mody says he grew up poor and that he helped
his father with his teacart business. He likes to tell
these stories on the campaign trail, where they make him
relatable to hundreds of millions of Indians living in poverty.
His friends told Sudy that growing up, he shared rooms
with siblings in a small house. There was no electricity
(04:40):
or even a toilet. It was here in his home
state of Gujarat where Mody attended meetings of the group
that would eventually change his life. The Rashtriya Swamzevak Sang
or the RSS.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
The artists. It's a Hindu first organization. They seeing hymns
that are these press. They have something which is called
the Shakas, a morning gathering. It's an organization that also
puts much focus on reaching out to community and community service.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
The group is open only to Hindu males. It's also
one of the few that offers activities for use in
small towns across India. And this group has a checkered past.
Two years before Modi was born, an RSS member assassinated
Mahatma Gandhi. That's right, Gandhi. The icon of India. The
(05:36):
RSS believes India belongs only to Hindus. According to India's
twenty eleven census, about eighty percent of India's population is
Hindu and more than fourteen percent are Muslims.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
Then you've got other minorities like Sikhs, like Christians, you
have Jews in this country also. It's a multi religious,
multi ethnic, multi lingual country.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Constitution of India says everyone has a right to freedom
of religion, and its preamble states that India is a
secular country. But the RSS says India should be a
Hindu nation. And for Mody that was appealing.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
One can understand with the artisis's ideology and the idea
that it's a hindunation. India should be a indonation and
Hindu first ideology. For a young mind, it is a
very very captivating idea.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
In his teenage years, the seeds planted by the RSS
would spawn a defiant streak in Modi. When he was
about eighteen years old, Modi's family arranged a marriage for him,
but shortly after the wedding ceremony, he abandoned his wife
and devoted his life to Hinduism.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
We know very little about his wife. We also not
seen him speak ever about his wife, and that's an
area that the Prime Minister himself hasn't talked about at on.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
After he left his wife, Mody said he headed to
the Himalayas to go wherever God wanted to take me.
Speaker 4 (07:09):
And his friends say that he always says that I
don't want to do this lift this normal life. I
want to do something that is out of the ordinary.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
After two years in the Himalayas, he decided to head
back to Gudrant and deepen his commitment to the RSS.
While the RSS calls itself a social cultural organization that
doesn't stand in elections, it does have a political arm,
the Baratiya Junta Party or the BJP. Mody's talents as
(07:38):
an organizer and public speaker prompted the RSS to eventually
send him to work on its front lines. His big
break came in nineteen ninety when he was involved in
an immensely divisive issue that would royal the nation's politics.
Mody found himself front and center of a controversial effort
to build a Hindu temple in the northern city of Ayodia,
(07:59):
where had stood since fifteen twenty eight. Hindu nationalists say
the site is the birthplace of Ram, whom many consider
to be the supreme being of the universe. And many
Hindu nationalists believe that the site was previously home to
a Hindu temple and that the mosque was deliberately built
there in an affront to Hinduism.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
Here is what legend has it, the birthplace of Ram,
where there's supposed to be a temple which was demolished
by a ruler, and this is how Hindus have been treated,
So it immediately appeals to the Hindu sentiment.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
The BJP wanted to build a temple in place of
the mosque, and they organized a huge rally to build support,
a ten thousand kilometer six week rally across the country.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
And Hodi is a man who's organizing this, as in
deciding on where do they stop, where do they go,
what do they say?
Speaker 2 (09:00):
The rally featured a truck made to look like an
ancient chariot.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
It is a toyota that is kind of rephurbished and
repurposed to look like a chariot. And the rally starts
off from Gujarat, you know, meandering all through all across India.
Talking to people about how the Hindus must rise.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
The BJP turned the rally into a massive movement. Hindus
from across central India not only donated money, but actual
bricks to build the temple. Some of them came from
far away, walking or taking trains for hundreds of miles
to get that temple built. The rally also helped Mody
get noticed by his bosses and he.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
Gets recognized for his ability to organize, for his ability
to understand what works politically, and he's taken very very
seriously with the BJP.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
But just two years later, a Hindu mob decided to
get the temple the RSS wanted by tearing down the
mosque themselves. Here's how the AP reported the destruction of
the holy site.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
At first it.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
Was only a few, but before long the mob mentality
would take over. A few would become scores, then hundreds
and thousands. Tired of their leaders temporizing, fired by religious zeal,
they attacked.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
The destruction of the mosque is a watershed moment. It
raised questions about India's secular credentials, and it escalated tensions
between Hindus and Muslims, which already had flared up. Regularly
since India's founding. It would also play a vital role
in a major turning point for Modi A decade later,
(10:46):
a particularly brutal episode of religious violence would shake the
country but present Mody and the BJP an opportunity to
unite the Hindu majority in a way that had never
been done before, giving Modi and his party tremendous power.
After the break, Modi takes over Gujarat and violence breaks
(11:07):
out against the backdrop of rising religious tensions, the BJP's
fortunes rose, as did Modis. In two thousand and one,
Modi took over the government in his home state of Gujarat,
but just a few months later, a large, deadly attack,
(11:28):
this time on Hindu pilgrims, would trigger a series of
events that would scar Modi's reputation for decades to come.
On February twenty seventh, two thousand and two, a large
number of Hindu pilgrims were on a train returning from
a Yodia to Ahemdabad, the largest city in Gujarat.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
It so happens that there are pilgrims who are returning
from Ayodia as it is passing this area called gudra
it Is attack, gouts are set on fire.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
At least fifty nine people were killed. Modi and other
officials were accused of framing the attack in a way
that pointed the finger at Muslims. Hindu mobs raged through
the state, burning their neighbors alive in some cases, while
Muslims also attacked Hindus. More than one thousand people died
in the violence, most of them Muslims.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Everybody attacked us, even the police. They powed kerosene an
asseid on us and setizen fire.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
When the riots read.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Modi was accused of conspiring with bureaucrats and police officers,
ordering police not to respond to calls for help as
Muslim neighborhoods came under attack. Modi denied all the allegations. Eventually,
thirty one Muslims were convicted for starting the fire, a
verdict upheld by the Gujarat High Court in twenty seventeen.
(12:52):
In two thousand and eight, India Supreme Court appointed a
special investigative team to probe the actions of Modi and
other officials. It eventually found that there was no prosecutable
evidence to bring a case forward, a conclusion that was
then challenged in the courts. But it was only two
years ago, two decades after the riots, that the Supreme
Court officially cleared Modi of any wrongdoing once and for all.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
But questions about.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
What Mody did or didn't do during the riots persisted
despite his denials.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
One of the major things that have haunted or kind
of come up again and again is the fact that
he did not or his government and his police under
him did not rush to the rescue of Muslims immediately
and therefore people were killed.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
These accusations have haunted Mody. You can hear it in
the pressing questions from reporter Karantha Parr, who interviewed Mody
in two thousand and seven for CNN IBN.
Speaker 7 (13:52):
India Today on two separate occasions, has declared that you
are the most official chief minister and yet despite that,
people's you'll call you do your face and nass murderer
and they accuse you of being prejudiced against Muslims. Do
you have an image problem?
Speaker 2 (14:09):
Mody's response to this question was, essentially, there aren't a
lot of people accusing me of this, literally only a handful.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
I think it's not.
Speaker 6 (14:19):
Proper to say people there are two or three person
those who used to dog in this terminology, and I
always say God bless them.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
There's a bit of back and forth. Mody appears to
look calm, the journalist continues to press him, and then
Mody abruptly ends the interview.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
It lasts all of three minutes.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
And Mody said in an interview later quoted by Times
Now that he did absolutely the right thing in two
thousand and two.
Speaker 6 (14:58):
I'mists I'm a patuity. Nothing is it wrong. I'm a
born Hindu, nothing is it wrong. So I'm a Hindu
national list. So you can say, yes, I'm a list.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Yet the criticism of Modi didn't just come from within India.
The US, UK and EU all denied him visus over
allegations stemming from the riots. But in the face of
all this criticism, Modi would start a campaign to rebuild
his image, quietly laying the groundwork to triple his party
(15:31):
supporters and become one of India's most powerful figures in decades,
power that would soon turn him from international pariah to
literally being embraced by global leaders and wealthy tycoons.
Speaker 5 (15:45):
When foreigners think of new India, they think of a
new Gujarat. How did this transformation happen because of one leader.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
He would turn India into a place everywhere one is talking.
Speaker 5 (16:00):
About our beloved leader who has emerged as the greatest
global leader of our times. And he is Shane narendr
Vhai Modi, the most successful prime minister in India's history.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
Business loves it so vibrant Gujarad and his friendship with
billionnaires and gujar Riots are all kind of intertwined.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
So how does Mody turn one of the biggest political
crises in his favor to become the most powerful man
India scene in decades. That's in our next episode, Part two,
Narentro Modi's Big Comeback. This is the Big Take Asia
(16:54):
from Bloomberg News.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
I'm wanh.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
This episode was produced by Young Young and Naomi. It
was edited by Caitlin Kenney, Daniel ten Kate, Emma O'Brien,
Nishantahia and Jeanette Rodriguez. It was mixed by Alex Suguiera
and Blake Maples and the story was fact checked by
Thomas lu and David Fox. Special thanks to Sanjai pr
Supriya Batra, taymor Soban Niam Mushaven, Elizabeth Ponso, and the
(17:20):
Bloomberg Originals team. Nicole Beamster Bower is our executive producer,
and Sage Bauman is Bloomberg's Head of Podcasts.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Thanks for listening to The Big Take, Asia.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Please follow this show wherever you listen to podcasts. See
you don't miss Part two of Narender Modi
Hosts And Creators
Sarah Holder
Saleha Mohsin
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