Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. On an early morning
Speaker 1: this January, hundreds of Indian politicians, world leaders, business moguls,
Speaker 1: and journalists gathered in a huge convention center in the
Speaker 1: western Indian state of Gujarat. They came here for the
Speaker 1: Vibrant Gujarat Summit, a business event that draws investment pledges
Speaker 1: worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Leaders from some of
Speaker 1: the world's biggest companies showed up, including Microsoft, in Nvidia,
Speaker 1: and on stage, speaker after speaker praised one man.
Speaker 2: When foreigners think of new India, they think of a
Speaker 2: new Gujarat. How did this transformation happen because of one leader.
Speaker 1: That's Mukesham Banni, the richest man in India and in Asia.
Speaker 2: Our beloved leader was emerged as the greatest global leader
Speaker 2: of our times. And he is Sen NARENDR Vai Modi,
Speaker 2: the most successful prime minister in India's history.
Speaker 1: One big reason on Banni can't stop singing Narandromodi's praises
Speaker 1: his own net worth. It is quintupled since Mody became
Speaker 1: Prime Minister. Ambani is now the eleventh richest person on
Speaker 1: the planet, right behind Warren Buffett and Larry Ellison and
Speaker 1: Bonnie was also one of the first business heavyweights that
Speaker 1: came to support this summit. Vibrant Gujarat. It was Mody's
Speaker 1: brainchild while he was Chief Minister of the state and
Speaker 1: it's no coincidence that this summit first took place in
Speaker 1: two thousand and three. That's just a year after riots
Speaker 1: in Gujarat left more than one thousand people dead and
Speaker 1: brought criticism of the state and its leader Mody. Welcome
Speaker 1: to The Big Take Asia from Bloomberg News. I'm wan Ha.
Speaker 1: Each week we bring you one big story from Asia,
Speaker 1: taking you deeper into some of the world's biggest and
Speaker 1: most powerful economies and the markets, tycoons and businesses that
Speaker 1: drive this fast changing region. Today the second episode in
Speaker 1: our two part series on India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Speaker 1: We look at how Mody emerged even stronger after the
Speaker 1: riots and how he used his relationships with billionaires to
Speaker 1: propel his power and India to new heights. After more
Speaker 1: than one thousand people, mostly Muslims, were killed in violent
Speaker 1: riots in Gujarat in two thousand and two, Modi came
Speaker 1: under immediate pressure the Indian Supreme Court would eventually clear
Speaker 1: Modi of any wrongdoing years later, but in two thousand
Speaker 1: and two, he was besieged with accusations from all over India. Critics,
Speaker 1: including members of his own party, accused him of failing
Speaker 1: to do enough to stop the violence, and amid the criticism,
Speaker 1: Modi saw an opportunity to cement his political support in Gujarat,
Speaker 1: a state were Hindu's outnumber Muslims by a wide margin.
Speaker 1: Just five months after the riots, Modi called an early
Speaker 1: election and ran on a defiantly pro Hindu campaign.
Speaker 3: So Moodi ran a campaign which was actually very provocated.
Speaker 1: That's Nilanjan Mokopati Hai, a journalist based in Delhi and
Speaker 1: author of a Modi biography, Narendra Modi the man the times.
Speaker 3: He actually called, you know, in one of his speeches,
Speaker 3: said that I have shocked all these refugee camps.
Speaker 1: Those refugee camps had been set up for tens of
Speaker 1: thousands of Muslims. They lost their homes in the aftermath
Speaker 1: of the Gujarat riots.
Speaker 3: Is preferred to the refugee camp, says baby manufacturing factories.
Speaker 1: If you didn't catch that, Klanjan said that Modi called
Speaker 1: these refugee camps baby making factories. This stirred up unfounded
Speaker 1: fears that Muslims in India, who only make up about
Speaker 1: fourteen percent of the population, would soon overtake Hindus in numbers.
Speaker 3: A certain amount of Gujati majoritarian sentiment was unleashed by mister.
Speaker 1: Moody and it worked.
Speaker 3: So that is how mister Moody suddenly became from the
Speaker 3: leader of a government and a party which was not
Speaker 3: very sure whether they will win the elections, to somebody
Speaker 3: who became the Hindu ride Samat, the emperor of Hindu hearts.
Speaker 1: The riots galvanized the Hindu nationalist movement and made Modi
Speaker 1: an unapologetic Hindu leader only more popular. Modi's BJP ended
Speaker 1: up winning seventy percent of seats, the biggest victory for
Speaker 1: any party in Gujarat in nearly two decades, but still
Speaker 1: had a problem. The reputations of both Mody and his
Speaker 1: home state were in tatters, particularly on the international stage.
Speaker 3: He decided, or he also realized, because ultimately you have
Speaker 3: to improve the image of the state. Also the only
Speaker 3: way is by projecting the image of a very peaceful state.
Speaker 1: But how Modi's strategy win over India's biggest tycoons. Mody
Speaker 1: personally called the country's leading entrepreneurs and convinced them to
Speaker 1: come and invest in the state. He implemented a slew
Speaker 1: of pro business measures, cutting layers and layers of bureaucracy,
Speaker 1: and sped up investment approvals. Listen to how excited the
Speaker 1: crowd was to see Mody at a festival tied to
Speaker 1: the Vibrant Gujarat Summit in two thousand and four.
Speaker 4: I'll say, let me raise your hands and say Gujarati's will.
Speaker 3: In a short period of time, Librant Gujat became a
Speaker 3: very important event for which people would flood.
Speaker 1: And they didn't just show up. They invested money, lots
Speaker 1: of money. Banni says his company, Reliance Industries, has invested
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty billion US dollars in India in
Speaker 1: the last ten years and that a third of that
Speaker 1: has gone to Gujarat alone. And Guta Madani, who is
Speaker 1: now India's second richest man, invested in big dollar projects
Speaker 1: such as power plants. One of Adani's power plants in
Speaker 1: the state can power millions of rural homes. Those projects
Speaker 1: created thousands of jobs in Mody's home state and fed
Speaker 1: right back into growing public support for Mody.
Speaker 5: What we can very definitely say is that business loves
Speaker 5: him and he's also made every possible gesture reached out
Speaker 5: for them to come and invest an inn set of
Speaker 5: shop in India.
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Sudi ran Jansen has been covering India for nearly
Speaker 1: three decades.
Speaker 5: So vibrant gujard and his friendship with billionnaires and Gujarat
Speaker 5: riots are all kind of intertwined.
Speaker 1: And in the almost thirteen years Mody was in charge
Speaker 1: of the state, Gujrat's economy grew an average of nearly
Speaker 1: ten percent each year, higher than the country overall. Mody's
Speaker 1: record on the state economy, combined with his charisma on
Speaker 1: the campaign trail, catapulted him onto the national stage. He
Speaker 1: rose to become the Prime Minister candidate of his party,
Speaker 1: the Baratiya Janta Party or the BJP. And in May
Speaker 1: twenty fourteen.
Speaker 6: We begin with the biggest exercise in democracy ever. Narendra
Speaker 6: Moody has won a landslide victory in India's election. The
Speaker 6: long dominant Congress party has conceded defeat and has headed
Speaker 6: for its worst loss and it's head to Mumbai.
Speaker 1: You can hear how excited his supporters are in this
Speaker 1: video posted on Modi's official YouTube channel. After the break,
Speaker 1: Modi focuses on helping the poor before carrying out his
Speaker 1: Hindu First agenda, passing measures that stoke further tension between
Speaker 1: Hindus and religious minorities in India, all the while winning
Speaker 1: praise from world leaders and business titans like Elon Musk.
Speaker 1: After savoring the biggest election win in India in thirty years,
Speaker 1: Mody took quick action to quiet critics. They accused him
Speaker 1: of focusing on pleasing Hindu conservatives rather than improving the
Speaker 1: lives of the country's poorest people. So Mody pledged to
Speaker 1: focus on toilets, first temples. Later, here's him talking about
Speaker 1: it in a speech in twenty thirteen.
Speaker 4: Friends, I'm known to be a Hindu nationalist leader. I
Speaker 4: have said this with a lot of courage in my state,
Speaker 4: and I keep repeating. My image does not permit me
Speaker 4: to say so, but I dare to say that my
Speaker 4: real thought is first pill, toilets, ten temples.
Speaker 1: Modi's government launched a series of programs. Beyond providing toilets,
Speaker 1: It provided the poor with cheap cooking gas, running water, electricity,
Speaker 1: and on top of that, gave hundreds of millions of
Speaker 1: Indians new bank accounts, allowing them to directly access government
Speaker 1: subsidies instead of having to go through middlemen who often
Speaker 1: took a cut.
Speaker 5: With you know, being able to bank the unbanked. He's
Speaker 5: been able to largely, not completely, but largely in some areas,
Speaker 5: do away with, you know, the corruption that was there
Speaker 5: in between in the delivery systems. That has really worked.
Speaker 1: And as he grew in power, Modi and the BJP
Speaker 1: sought to unify the Hindu vote by seeking to convince
Speaker 1: the majority of Indians to identify more as Hindus than
Speaker 1: by caste. Now, India's cast system is an ancient system
Speaker 1: of social hierarchy based on birth, and it's one of
Speaker 1: the traditional dividing lines politically. Although cast discrimination is officially banned,
Speaker 1: the system is still a big factor in deciding everything
Speaker 1: from education and healthcare to job opportunities. Under Modi, the
Speaker 1: BJP has brought in more Hindus into the party, effectively
Speaker 1: building a bigger coalition of Hindu voters across cast lines.
Speaker 1: The party's membership more than tripled in twenty nineteen, with
Speaker 1: Modi at the helm.
Speaker 5: What we see that the BJP has excelled in is
Speaker 5: being able to kind of bring in more or less
Speaker 5: all casts and smaller groups within the Hindu in the religon.
Speaker 5: So why are you pushing the Hindu first agenda front
Speaker 5: and center. You're also taking care of the different divisions
Speaker 5: that are there in society and trying to say that
Speaker 5: innaded us who can take care of you, Therefore you
Speaker 5: need to follow us. Therefore you need to support us.
Speaker 1: During his first term, Mody largely focused on economic issues.
Speaker 1: A second landslide election win in twenty nineteen prompted him
Speaker 1: to move full steam ahead with some long standing goals
Speaker 1: of Hindu conservatives. A few months into Modi's second term,
Speaker 1: his government scrapped the special status of Jamu and Kashmir,
Speaker 1: India's only Muslim majority state. The status had allowed the
Speaker 1: state to make its own laws and gave it autonomy
Speaker 1: in nearly all matters. India also passed a law that
Speaker 1: fast tracked citizenship rights for immigrants from neighboring nations, except
Speaker 1: for those who identify as Muslim. The law, called the
Speaker 1: Citizenship Amendment Act, sparked protests and sporadic communal violence. Muslims
Speaker 1: who had immigrated to India years ago fear that they
Speaker 1: might be deported or placed in detention camps. We are
Speaker 1: protest or.
Speaker 5: We are the most chasing against a law which is
Speaker 5: parsed by the Indian woman, which is based on the religion,
Speaker 5: which discim anerica an artist. For the first time, you
Speaker 5: have a very popular leader who is anabashedly a Hindu leader.
Speaker 5: India has seen Hindu leaders earlier who have always been
Speaker 5: very mindful, sensitive about other communities. In this case, it
Speaker 5: is just the opposite. You have a very you know
Speaker 5: of muscular show of religion.
Speaker 1: Since Modi came to power in twenty fourteen, the representation
Speaker 1: of Muslim lawmakers in Parliament has been dropping and pro
Speaker 1: Hindu pop songs are growing in popularity. And while some
Speaker 1: in the West may think this would be bad for Mody,
Speaker 1: none of that has turned off his voting base. Sudi
Speaker 1: says that's because of the growth he's delivered and the
Speaker 1: lack of big corruption scandals under his watch. The more
Speaker 1: Modi and the BJP can unify the Hindu vote, the
Speaker 1: greater the likelihood they can rule India for decades to come.
Speaker 5: So it doesn't hurt his popularity just because of the numbers.
Speaker 5: If you look at the Hindu population, it is the
Speaker 5: majority population and the Muslim population is a minority. It's
Speaker 5: about only fourteen percent. So it really doesn't affect you know,
Speaker 5: Prime Minister more the other BJP's electoral fortunes, so to say.
Speaker 1: And just a few months after Modi and the BJP
Speaker 1: won a second term, a Supreme Court ruling gave them
Speaker 1: even more room to push their Hindu first agenda. Remember
Speaker 1: that mosque that was destroyed by Hindu mob in nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety two, While in twenty nineteen, the Supreme Court announced
Speaker 1: a verdict that essentially handed Hindu's control of the area
Speaker 1: and that meant Mody was finally able to deliver on
Speaker 1: a long standing promise, the promise to build a Hindu
Speaker 1: temple in a Yodia where a mosque had stood for centuries.
Speaker 1: The sounds that you're hearing are from the inauguration ceremony
Speaker 1: this January of the Ram Temple in the northern city
Speaker 1: of a Yodia. And at the center of this big
Speaker 1: celebration is Narendra Modi. He's dressed in a traditional kurta
Speaker 1: almost as white as his beard and in his hands
Speaker 1: he holds a red cushion with a large silver ornament,
Speaker 1: and during the ceremony, prostrates himself before a statue of ram. Now,
Speaker 1: the temple's actually not going to be fully completed until
Speaker 1: this December, but Mody planned for the opening ceremony to
Speaker 1: take place just several months before he's up for re election.
Speaker 7: Haimae from today, from this sacred moment, we must lay
Speaker 7: the foundation for the next thousand years.
Speaker 1: With millions of people joining the middle class each year,
Speaker 1: India could see annual growth rates reaching eight percent over
Speaker 1: the next decade. A Bloomberg analysis estimated that India could
Speaker 1: overtake China as the world's fastest growing economy as early
Speaker 1: as twenty twenty eight, and globally, India is in a
Speaker 1: sweet spot right now as tensions grow between the US
Speaker 1: and China, India is benefiting from the fallout. It's now
Speaker 1: the world's most populous country and it's a huge and
Speaker 1: potentially lucrative market for companies looking to diversify away from
Speaker 1: US slowing China companies like Tesla. You can hear how
Speaker 1: passionate Elon Musk is in this video after he met
Speaker 1: Mody last year.
Speaker 4: Well, I'm actually incredibly excited about the future of India.
Speaker 4: I think India has more promise than any large country
Speaker 4: in the world.
Speaker 5: I am a fan of Mody.
Speaker 1: So and here's JP Morgan CEO Jamie Diamond.
Speaker 5: Modi has done an unbelieving job in India. He's taken
Speaker 5: four hundred million people of poverty. They've gone umbling education system,
Speaker 5: umblieing infrastructure. They're lifting up that whole country because this
Speaker 5: one man is just ased off.
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, religious tensions and accusations of unfair treatment of minorities
Speaker 1: in India have not gone away. The problem got new
Speaker 1: light last year when Hardeep sing Najar was shot dead
Speaker 1: in Canada this past June. He was a Canadian and
Speaker 1: a prominent Sikh separatist leader who was labeled a terrorist
Speaker 1: by India. Here's Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaking about
Speaker 1: the killing.
Speaker 8: Canadian security agencies have been actively pursuing credible allegations of
Speaker 8: a potential link between agents of the government of India
Speaker 8: and the killing of a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh.
Speaker 1: Canadian police charged four Indian nationals with first degree murder
Speaker 1: in the killing of the Sikh activists. They also said
Speaker 1: officers are actively investigating links to Mody's government, which has
Speaker 1: dismissed the allegations as absurd. After the allegations emerged, Secretary
Speaker 1: of State Anthony Blincoln said the US does bring up
Speaker 1: human rights issues with India, but he also praised Mody's
Speaker 1: remarkable achievements. Here's Blinken at the World Economic Forum in
Speaker 1: Davos in January.
Speaker 9: Well, we see an extraordinary success stories. We also see
Speaker 9: a relationship between our countries that is in a new place,
Speaker 9: at a new level, and that's been I think the
Speaker 9: very deliberate effort of both Prime Minister and President Biden.
Speaker 1: And right now it looks like Mody and the BJP
Speaker 1: are set for another term. I asked Sudy, what would
Speaker 1: India look like if Mody wins big yet again.
Speaker 5: If this government comes back as it claims, it is
Speaker 5: coming back with larger numbers, So you can expect a
Speaker 5: lot of stability in economic policy, foreign policy, you can
Speaker 5: expect a lot of stability. On the other hand, the
Speaker 5: darker or the difficult parts of that would be when
Speaker 5: you push a unified way of living. You know that
Speaker 5: is perhaps in a diverse, multicultural country, like India, could
Speaker 5: lead to major problems.
Speaker 1: On the campaign trail, Mody has gotten questions about how
Speaker 1: long he plans to stay in power, and he's avoided
Speaker 1: giving a clear answer. In an interview with a local
Speaker 1: media outlet this month, he said no country should run
Speaker 1: on one man. Yet he gave a very different answer
Speaker 1: two months earlier at a public forum hosted by local
Speaker 1: media India Today. Listen to how he frames his answer
Speaker 1: when asked whether he is already looking ahead to elections
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty.
Speaker 4: Nine twenty nine, You're stuck in twenty twenty nine. I'm
Speaker 4: preparing and planning for twenty five twenty forty seven.
Speaker 1: This is the Big Take Asia from Bloomberg News. I'm
Speaker 1: wan Ha. This episode was produced by Young Young and
Speaker 1: Naomi Un. It was edited by Caitlin Kenney, Daniel ten Kate,
Speaker 1: Emma O'Brien, Nishantahia and Jeanette Rodriguez. It was mixed by
Speaker 1: Alex Suguiera, Jessica Beck and Blake Maples, who also wrote
Speaker 1: our theme music. The story was fact checked by Thomas
Speaker 1: Leu and David Fox. Special thanks to Sunjai pr Supriya Batra,
Speaker 1: Tamur Soban Naomi Shaven, Currian Abraham, Elizabeth Ponso, and the
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Originals team. Nicole Beemster Bower is our executive producer,
Speaker 1: and Sage Bowman is Bloomberg's head of podcasts. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to The Big Take, Asia, Please follow this show
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 6: YE