Narendra Modi Birthday: Ten extraordinary facts about the Prime Minister

In his political career spanning over five decades, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has achieved several firsts. His policies, often criticised at face value, have went on to strengthen India’s ties with other countries on one hand, and improve the lives of countrymen on the other. And as Modi turns 72 on Saturday, let us have a look at some extraordinary and some little-known facts about our PM. 

• Modi was the first PM to be born in independent India and is the longest serving PM from outside the Congress. He also has the distinction of being the longest serving chief minister of Gujarat – from October 2001 to May 2014.
• In the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Modi led the BJP to record wins, securing absolute majority on both occasions. The last time a political party secured absolute majority was in 1984 – the Congress after Indira Gandhi’s assassination. He revolutionised the use of technology and social media in his campaigns, forcing other parties to follow suit. 
• Modi repealed 1,200 obsolete laws in his first three years as PM against 1,300 such laws repealed by previous governments in 64 years. Under him, 18,000 villages without electricity even 70 years after Independence were electrified. 
• PM Modi has been conferred the highest civilian honour of Saudi Arabia – King Abdulaziz Sash. He has also been conferred the top awards of Russia (Order of St Andrew the Apostle the First-Called), UAE (Zayed Medal), Afghanistan (Amir Amanullah Khan Award), Palestine (Grand Collar of the State of Palestine) and Maldives (Rule of Nishan Izzuddeen). In 2018, he received the prestigious Seoul Peace Prize for his contribution to peace and development. 
• Modi’s call for marking “International Day of Yoga” received overwhelming response at the UN. In a first, 177 countries came together and passed the resolution to declare June 21 as “International Day of Yoga”. 
• Modi was introduced to the RSS when he was only eight years old. His teachers describe him as a gifted debater, with interest in theatre. As a child, Modi was also fond of swimming. 
• When RSS was banned during Emergency, Modi went underground and travelled in disguise of a monk or Sikh. He printed pamphlets and organised demonstrations. He was also involved in creating a network of safehouses for anti-government activists and raising funds for them. 
• After his success in organising LK Advani’s Rath Yatra and MM Joshi’s Ekta Yatra, Modi took a break from politics in 1992 due to a rift with Shankersinh Vaghela. He returned to active politics in 1994 at Advani’s insistence. 
• During his second stint as Gujarat CM, Modi cracked down on Sangh affiliates Bharatiya Kisan Sangh and Vishva Hindu Parishad to check their increasing influence. He also ordered the demolition of 200 temples in Gandhinagar that further distanced him from the VHP. 
• As CM, Modi was credited with reviving groundwater, and subsequently agriculture, in Gujarat. By December 2008, some five lakh structures were built, of which over one lakh were check dams that helped recharge aquifers below them. Over half of the 112 tehsils that had depleted water tables in 2004 had regained normal groundwater levels by 2010. As a result, the state’s production of cotton increased to become the largest in India.