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narendra modi's   boigraphy

Narendra Modi, the next likely Prime Minister of India, is well known for many things: he is a devout Hindu, a fervent nationalist, a vegetarian, a hard-core conservative, the leader of the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a hawk on Pakistan, and proud of the economic prosperity he has brought to his native state of Gujarat under his 13-year stewardship as chief minister. He is also widely assailed in India and elsewhere for his apparent (and disputed) role in facilitating the deadly communal riots in 2002 in Gujarat which killed at least 1,200 people, mostly Muslims. However, there are some questions and mysteries surrounding this man who may, within eight weeks, become one of the most powerful people on earth. For one thing, his wife, and his bizarre relationship with her.

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The Global Post reported late last year that Modi is indeed married, but has not spoken to his wife in more than 45 years and that he essentially abandoned her decades ago. But Jashodaben Modi, who wedded her husband when both were teenagers in an arranged marriage, said she remains devoted to him. The 63-year-old retired schoolteacher attends her husband's rallies and prays for his electoral triumphs. “She [Jashodaben] goes to his [Modi’s] speeches to see him, but she never tells anyone. She doesn’t tell anyone who she is,” her niece, Nirali Modi, a 25-year-old teacher, told GlobalPost. “He doesn’t know. They have not spoken since he left... She is a very religious woman. She likes simplicity and modesty.”

FirstPost said her entire name is Jashodaben Chimanlal Modi, although she only goes by her first name. According to Jashodaben's relatives, Modi left her when they were both 18 years old in the late 1960s so that he could pursue his political career. Reportedly, Modi refused to consummate his marriage and angrily left his native village of Vadnagar after an argument with his in-laws. He soon joined a right-wing Hindu organization called Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a predecessor of the BJP, and began a long odyssey that could soon take him to the pinnacle of India's treacherous political mountain.

GlobalPost noted that the RSS forbade its top members from marrying, lest the duties and responsibilities of matrimony interfere with their political goals (although this assertion has been vociferously denied by RSS/BJP supporters). Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, who wrote a biography of Narendra Modi, explained to the Global Post that as a young political activist, Modi was a propagandist “who lived and worked for the RSS full time. If he had admitted the marriage, he would have lost his position.” Consequently, after their 'separation,' Jashodaben devoted herself to teaching in a small village, Rajosana in Banaskantha district, and retired in 2010, having never re-married.