It’s the Modi moment in India’s political history. Narendra Modi has made history by delivering the blockbuster victory for the BJP in the 2014 elections in India, a spectacular performance that has stunned pollsters and pundits alike.
In the first-ever high-level presidential-style campaign, the 63-year-old BJP leader had unleashed a massive tech-savvy campaign blitzkrieg that included broadcasting speeches through 3D holographs, addressing 477 rallies and attending over 5,000 poll-related events. Over the last few months, he traversed more than 300,000 kilometres on the campaign trail virtually from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. In his campaign speeches, Modi promised to cleanse India of the curse of corruption, fast-track the country’s development and shepherd the ascent of India as a major power in the world. In the next few weeks, the world will be trying to unscramble what India’s new prime minister says and how fulfil the promises he made.
Here are excerpts from Modi’s speeches and comments that offer hints and guesses to the kind of leader India’s 1.2 billion-plus people has chosen to lead their country.
“I used to sell tea on trains. I know how difficult it is to make a living.” – October 27, 2013, at a rally in Patna
“I believe government has no business to do business. Minimum government, maximum governance. Minimum government, maximum governance.”
(April 8, at a speech in Delhi)
“
History will remember the 2014 Elections as historic and marking a paradigm shift from conventional electioneering. Normally, the party in power sets the agenda of the campaign but for the first time it was not the case. Far from setting the agenda, the ruling party was neither proactive nor responsive. It was only reactive throughout the campaign.”
(Modi in his blog May 2012 at the conclusion of the April 7-May 12 elections in India)
“Yes, this has been a hard-fought election. It had its joyous moments and there were heated moments as well. Now is the time to put the heat and dust of campaign behind and look ahead. Irrespective of who wins on the 16th, the dreams of a billion Indians should not suffer. Yes, as political parties and candidates we have differing ideologies but our goal is one- to work for India and to fulfill the aspirations of our youth.”
This is the right time to look ahead. It is a time to connect with each other. Lets place people over politics, hope over despair, healing over hurting, inclusion over exclusion and development over divisiveness. It is natural for the spirit of bi-partisanship to get temporarily lost in the midst of an election campaign but now is the time to resurrect it.”
(Modi in his blog May 2012 at the conclusion of the April 7-May 12 elections in India)
“I had started the campaign from 15th September. So now it’s 6-7 months since I started the campaign. I am a laborer and my childhood was very tough and physically I am used to all this. I also do my Yoga and Pranayam. But the important point is that I believe you never get tired by doing work. You get tired when you don’t work. When you clean your house, you don’t get tired, it gives you satisfaction.
People’s blessings give you the power to work tirelessly. The only thing required is commitment. The love and affection that I have received from people in last 6 months keeps me running.”
(In interview to Rajat Sharma of India TV)
“From snake-charmers, we are now a nation of mouse-charmers. Our youngsters are shaping the world with the click of a mouse with their feats in the IT sector.”
(Feb 6, at Delhi University’s Shri Ram College of Commerce).
“Swap vote bank politics for development. The solution to all problems is development. The whole nation has been destroyed by vote bank politics, what it needs is development. If there is development, there is much scope for a lot of improvement in the nation.”
“People are not upset when any other player is out with a low score but if Sachin Tendulkar is out even at 90, he is criticised because people judge him on a different scale. I’m glad that I, too, have been judged on a scale of expectations and not on a scale of credit and discredit.”
“Secularism is a term interpreted in many different ways by different people. For me, it has always been something very simple – putting India First …When we look after India’s interests, the interests of every Indian are automatically cared for.”
(Modi on his blog in 2011)
They say power is poison, and protect people from it. This poison is only for one family?
(Nov 17, at a rally in Bangalore)
“Gujarat is by and large a vegetarian state. And secondly, Gujarat is also a middle-class state. The middle-class is more beauty conscious than health conscious – that is a challenge. If a mother tells her daughter to have milk, they’ll have a fight. She’ll tell her mother, “I won’t drink milk. I’ll get fat’”.
(Modi in an interview to the Wall Street Journal in 2012)
“One only has to ask for forgiveness if one is guilty of a crime. If you think it’s such a big crime, why should the culprit be forgiven? Just because Modi is a chief minister, why should he be forgiven? I think Modi should get the biggest punishment possible if he is guilty. And the world should know there isn’t any tolerance for these kind of political leaders.”
(Modi in an interview to the WSJ)
“Before I became a chief minister I never thought that one day I’d be the chief minister. My basic philosophy is, I don’t want to be anything. But I want to do something. So I’m not interested in becoming anything, but I am interested in doing something for my country and for the poor people.”
(Modi in an interview to The Economist)
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