4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 1 June 2024
⏱️ 5 minutes
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Narendra Modi may well be the most popular politician on the planet. India’s prime minister is eyeing a third term atop the world’s biggest democracy.
A tea-seller’s son, Mr Modi began life an outsider and the man behind the political phenomenon remains hard to fathom. India has become an economic powerhouse during his ten years in charge. But he’s also the frontman for a chauvinistic Hindu nationalist dogma.
Can Mr Modi continue to balance both parts of his agenda and finish the job of turning India into a superpower? The Economist’s Avantika Chilkoti finds out what makes him tick.
Launching June 2024.
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0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Avante Kichalkoti, a foreign correspondent at The Economist. |
0:07.0 | I started out in journalism just over a decade ago in Mumbai. |
0:12.0 | There was one big story in India back then, the landslide election of a new |
0:17.8 | kind of leader. Norendra Modi. Ten years on the big question in my mind and in the minds of anyone interested in |
0:27.2 | India is still the same. Who is Norendndra Modi really? |
0:38.5 | Travel around India and movies everywhere, |
0:41.1 | on billboards, on TV, at the cricket, but he's also elusive. |
0:46.4 | The Prime Minister doesn't do press conferences. |
0:49.7 | As the leader of the world's biggest democracy, Moby has proven to be a strong man with a dangerous |
0:55.3 | streak of authoritarianism. |
0:58.1 | He rarely gives unscripted interviews, so to tell a story I've tried to find those closest to him. |
1:05.0 | Modi had only one 22 inch suitcase. |
1:10.0 | So a very simple man. |
1:12.0 | Parad Barai is an Indian American oncologist who hosted Modi on one of his first visits to America. |
1:20.0 | He calls Modi a friend. |
1:23.0 | After Modi was elected Prime Minister, |
1:29.0 | Parot Barai helped organize a rally in America. |
1:32.0 | 18,000 Moby supporters filled Madison Square Garden in New York. And his speech of speech, of course, he had a Shia that he had |
1:45.0 | he, |
1:46.0 | that is Hindustan, |
1:47.0 | he said. |
1:48.0 | And his speech of course was extraordinary as usual. |
... |
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