Narendra Damodardas Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi ( Gujarati: [nəreːnd̪rə d̪ɑːmoːd̪ərəd̪ɑːs moːd̪iː] ( listen ) , born 17 September 1950) is the 15th and current Prime Minister of India , in office since 26 May 2014. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Modi, a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament (MP) from Varanasi . He led the BJP in the 2014 general election , which gave the party a majority in the Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Indian parliament) – a first for any party since 1984 – and was credited for October 2014 BJP electoral victories in the states of Haryana and Maharashtra . [ 3 ] The prime minister, a Hindu nationalist , is a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) [ 4 ] [ 5 ] and is a controversial figure domestically and internationally; [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ] [ 9 ] his administration was criticised for its failure to prevent the 2002 Gujarat riots . [ 9 ] [ 10 ] Although Modi's economic policies...