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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.

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Speaker 2: Last June, the White House hosted an elaborate state dinner

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Speaker 2: featuring an entirely plant based menu, no meat, no eggs.

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Speaker 2: Their vegetarian guest of honor Indian Prime Minister Nrender Modi.

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Speaker 2: Although Mody has been at the center of Indian politics

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Speaker 2: for over a decade and he's visited the US plenty

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Speaker 2: of times, it was his first official state visit to

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Speaker 2: the White House since becoming PM. It's considered the highest

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Speaker 2: honor for a visiting leader and a chance to build

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Speaker 2: a stronger friendship over food, wine, and music, or, on

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Speaker 2: this occasion, stuffed portobello mushrooms and cardamom infused strawberry shortcake.

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Speaker 2: Here's US President Joe Biden welcoming Mody.

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Speaker 3: Welcome to mister Rhymnis, Welcome back to the White House.

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Speaker 4: I've long believed that.

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Speaker 5: The relationship between the United States and India is one

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Speaker 5: of that will be one of the defining relationships of

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Speaker 5: the twenty first century.

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Speaker 4: I'm honored to be the first to have you here

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Speaker 4: in fifteen years.

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Speaker 6: Primerster Modi, Welcome back to the White House.

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Speaker 2: But on the same day, outside the gates of the

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Speaker 2: White House, some people were much less welcoming. The protest

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Speaker 2: group was small, only about several dozen people, but they

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Speaker 2: spoke to much larger fears among religious minorities back home.

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Speaker 2: In India, where Hindus make up the majority of the

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Speaker 2: nation's one point four billion people, there has been.

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Speaker 7: Espilation and acutional Sikhs and Bilious to be passion and

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Speaker 7: other minorities like Musa Christians.

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Speaker 2: For years, Modi has been dogged by accusations that he

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Speaker 2: has stoked religious division in India and not done enough

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Speaker 2: when that division has turned deadly, And some two decades ago,

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Speaker 2: US officials even denied him a visa to enter the US,

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Speaker 2: citing severe violations of religious freedom. And yet here he

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Speaker 2: was last summer, being feted by President Biden and having

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Speaker 2: the crowd at the White House cheering his name. So

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Speaker 2: how has Modi been able to rehabilitate his image, build

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Speaker 2: up so much power, remains so popular in India and

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Speaker 2: increasingly abroad. Why is he it once so beloved and polarizing,

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Speaker 2: and what does it tell us about where the seventy

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Speaker 2: three year old leader is taking India home to nearly

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Speaker 2: a fifth of humanity over the next five years.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Big Take Asia from Bloomberg News. I'm Wanha.

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Speaker 2: Every week we take you inside some of the world's

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Speaker 2: biggest and most powerful economies and the markets, tycoons and

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Speaker 2: businesses that drive this ever shifting region. Today the first

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Speaker 2: episode in a two part series on the most powerful

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Speaker 2: Indian leader in years?

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Speaker 1: Who is Narendra Modi?

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Speaker 2: To understand Modi's rise to power and the driving force

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Speaker 2: behind it, we went back to where it all started.

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Speaker 2: Narendra Modi was born in this small town of Vadnagar

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Speaker 2: in western India, in Gujarat State.

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Speaker 4: It is a town where Hindus and Muslims both live.

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Speaker 4: You have mosques, you have Hindu temples, both practice religion

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Speaker 4: quite freely.

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Speaker 2: Sudi ran Jansen has been covering Indian politics for nearly

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Speaker 2: three decades. He visited Modi's hometown earlier this year and

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Speaker 2: met some of his childhood friends. They told him that

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Speaker 2: as a kid, Mody was religious.

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Speaker 4: Like One of the friends we spoke to used to

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Speaker 4: swim with him every day and he told us they

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Speaker 4: would all get up by six o'clock, start swimming, go across,

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Speaker 4: swim across the lake to the temple, pray there come

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Speaker 4: back and then go to school.

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Speaker 2: Mody says he grew up poor and that he helped

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Speaker 2: his father with his teacart business. He likes to tell

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Speaker 2: these stories on the campaign trail, where they make him

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Speaker 2: relatable to hundreds of millions of Indians living in poverty.

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Speaker 2: His friends told Sudy that growing up, he shared rooms

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Speaker 2: with siblings in a small house. There was no electricity

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Speaker 2: or even a toilet. It was here in his home

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Speaker 2: state of Gujarat where Mody attended meetings of the group

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Speaker 2: that would eventually change his life. The Rashtriya Swamzevak Sang

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Speaker 2: or the RSS.

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Speaker 4: The artists. It's a Hindu first organization. They seeing hymns

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Speaker 4: that are these press. They have something which is called

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Speaker 4: the Shakas, a morning gathering. It's an organization that also

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Speaker 4: puts much focus on reaching out to community and community service.

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Speaker 2: The group is open only to Hindu males. It's also

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Speaker 2: one of the few that offers activities for use in

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Speaker 2: small towns across India. And this group has a checkered past.

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Speaker 2: Two years before Modi was born, an RSS member assassinated

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Speaker 2: Mahatma Gandhi. That's right, Gandhi. The icon of India. The

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Speaker 2: RSS believes India belongs only to Hindus. According to India's

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Speaker 2: twenty eleven census, about eighty percent of India's population is

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Speaker 2: Hindu and more than fourteen percent are Muslims.

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Speaker 4: Then you've got other minorities like Sikhs, like Christians, you

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Speaker 4: have Jews in this country also. It's a multi religious,

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Speaker 4: multi ethnic, multi lingual country.

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Speaker 2: Constitution of India says everyone has a right to freedom

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Speaker 2: of religion, and its preamble states that India is a

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Speaker 2: secular country. But the RSS says India should be a

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Speaker 2: Hindu nation. And for Mody that was appealing.

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Speaker 4: One can understand with the artisis's ideology and the idea

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Speaker 4: that it's a hindunation. India should be a indonation and

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Speaker 4: Hindu first ideology. For a young mind, it is a

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Speaker 4: very very captivating idea.

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Speaker 2: In his teenage years, the seeds planted by the RSS

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Speaker 2: would spawn a defiant streak in Modi. When he was

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Speaker 2: about eighteen years old, Modi's family arranged a marriage for him,

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Speaker 2: but shortly after the wedding ceremony, he abandoned his wife

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Speaker 2: and devoted his life to Hinduism.

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Speaker 4: We know very little about his wife. We also not

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Speaker 4: seen him speak ever about his wife, and that's an

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Speaker 4: area that the Prime Minister himself hasn't talked about at on.

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Speaker 2: After he left his wife, Mody said he headed to

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Speaker 2: the Himalayas to go wherever God wanted to take me.

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Speaker 4: And his friends say that he always says that I

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Speaker 4: don't want to do this lift this normal life. I

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Speaker 4: want to do something that is out of the ordinary.

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Speaker 2: After two years in the Himalayas, he decided to head

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Speaker 2: back to Gudrant and deepen his commitment to the RSS.

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Speaker 2: While the RSS calls itself a social cultural organization that

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Speaker 2: doesn't stand in elections, it does have a political arm,

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Speaker 2: the Baratiya Junta Party or the BJP. Mody's talents as

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Speaker 2: an organizer and public speaker prompted the RSS to eventually

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Speaker 2: send him to work on its front lines. His big

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Speaker 2: break came in nineteen ninety when he was involved in

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Speaker 2: an immensely divisive issue that would royal the nation's politics.

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Speaker 2: Mody found himself front and center of a controversial effort

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Speaker 2: to build a Hindu temple in the northern city of Ayodia,

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Speaker 2: where had stood since fifteen twenty eight. Hindu nationalists say

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Speaker 2: the site is the birthplace of Ram, whom many consider

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Speaker 2: to be the supreme being of the universe. And many

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Speaker 2: Hindu nationalists believe that the site was previously home to

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Speaker 2: a Hindu temple and that the mosque was deliberately built

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Speaker 2: there in an affront to Hinduism.

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Speaker 4: Here is what legend has it, the birthplace of Ram,

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Speaker 4: where there's supposed to be a temple which was demolished

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Speaker 4: by a ruler, and this is how Hindus have been treated,

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Speaker 4: So it immediately appeals to the Hindu sentiment.

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Speaker 2: The BJP wanted to build a temple in place of

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Speaker 2: the mosque, and they organized a huge rally to build support,

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Speaker 2: a ten thousand kilometer six week rally across the country.

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Speaker 4: And Hodi is a man who's organizing this, as in

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Speaker 4: deciding on where do they stop, where do they go,

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Speaker 4: what do they say?

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Speaker 2: The rally featured a truck made to look like an

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Speaker 2: ancient chariot.

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Speaker 4: It is a toyota that is kind of rephurbished and

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Speaker 4: repurposed to look like a chariot. And the rally starts

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Speaker 4: off from Gujarat, you know, meandering all through all across India.

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Speaker 4: Talking to people about how the Hindus must rise.

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Speaker 2: The BJP turned the rally into a massive movement. Hindus

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Speaker 2: from across central India not only donated money, but actual

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Speaker 2: bricks to build the temple. Some of them came from

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Speaker 2: far away, walking or taking trains for hundreds of miles

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Speaker 2: to get that temple built. The rally also helped Mody

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Speaker 2: get noticed by his bosses and he.

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Speaker 4: Gets recognized for his ability to organize, for his ability

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Speaker 4: to understand what works politically, and he's taken very very

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Speaker 4: seriously with the BJP.

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Speaker 2: But just two years later, a Hindu mob decided to

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Speaker 2: get the temple the RSS wanted by tearing down the

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Speaker 2: mosque themselves. Here's how the AP reported the destruction of

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Speaker 2: the holy site.

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Speaker 1: At first it.

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Speaker 3: Was only a few, but before long the mob mentality

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Speaker 3: would take over. A few would become scores, then hundreds

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Speaker 3: and thousands. Tired of their leaders temporizing, fired by religious zeal,

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Speaker 3: they attacked.

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Speaker 2: The destruction of the mosque is a watershed moment. It

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Speaker 2: raised questions about India's secular credentials, and it escalated tensions

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Speaker 2: between Hindus and Muslims, which already had flared up. Regularly

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Speaker 2: since India's founding. It would also play a vital role

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Speaker 2: in a major turning point for Modi A decade later,

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Speaker 2: a particularly brutal episode of religious violence would shake the

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Speaker 2: country but present Mody and the BJP an opportunity to

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Speaker 2: unite the Hindu majority in a way that had never

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Speaker 2: been done before, giving Modi and his party tremendous power.

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Speaker 2: After the break, Modi takes over Gujarat and violence breaks

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Speaker 2: out against the backdrop of rising religious tensions, the BJP's

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Speaker 2: fortunes rose, as did Modis. In two thousand and one,

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Speaker 2: Modi took over the government in his home state of Gujarat,

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Speaker 2: but just a few months later, a large, deadly attack,

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Speaker 2: this time on Hindu pilgrims, would trigger a series of

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Speaker 2: events that would scar Modi's reputation for decades to come.

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Speaker 2: On February twenty seventh, two thousand and two, a large

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Speaker 2: number of Hindu pilgrims were on a train returning from

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Speaker 2: a Yodia to Ahemdabad, the largest city in Gujarat.

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Speaker 4: It so happens that there are pilgrims who are returning

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Speaker 4: from Ayodia as it is passing this area called gudra

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Speaker 4: it Is attack, gouts are set on fire.

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Speaker 2: At least fifty nine people were killed. Modi and other

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Speaker 2: officials were accused of framing the attack in a way

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Speaker 2: that pointed the finger at Muslims. Hindu mobs raged through

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Speaker 2: the state, burning their neighbors alive in some cases, while

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Speaker 2: Muslims also attacked Hindus. More than one thousand people died

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Speaker 2: in the violence, most of them Muslims.

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Speaker 3: Everybody attacked us, even the police. They powed kerosene an

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Speaker 3: asseid on us and setizen fire.

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Speaker 1: When the riots read.

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Speaker 2: Modi was accused of conspiring with bureaucrats and police officers,

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Speaker 2: ordering police not to respond to calls for help as

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Speaker 2: Muslim neighborhoods came under attack. Modi denied all the allegations. Eventually,

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Speaker 2: thirty one Muslims were convicted for starting the fire, a

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Speaker 2: verdict upheld by the Gujarat High Court in twenty seventeen.

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Speaker 2: In two thousand and eight, India Supreme Court appointed a

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Speaker 2: special investigative team to probe the actions of Modi and

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Speaker 2: other officials. It eventually found that there was no prosecutable

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Speaker 2: evidence to bring a case forward, a conclusion that was

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Speaker 2: then challenged in the courts. But it was only two

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Speaker 2: years ago, two decades after the riots, that the Supreme

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Speaker 2: Court officially cleared Modi of any wrongdoing once and for all.

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Speaker 1: But questions about.

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Speaker 2: What Mody did or didn't do during the riots persisted

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Speaker 2: despite his denials.

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Speaker 4: One of the major things that have haunted or kind

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Speaker 4: of come up again and again is the fact that

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Speaker 4: he did not or his government and his police under

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Speaker 4: him did not rush to the rescue of Muslims immediately

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Speaker 4: and therefore people were killed.

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Speaker 2: These accusations have haunted Mody. You can hear it in

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Speaker 2: the pressing questions from reporter Karantha Parr, who interviewed Mody

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Speaker 2: in two thousand and seven for CNN IBN.

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Speaker 7: India Today on two separate occasions, has declared that you

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Speaker 7: are the most official chief minister and yet despite that,

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Speaker 7: people's you'll call you do your face and nass murderer

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Speaker 7: and they accuse you of being prejudiced against Muslims. Do

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Speaker 7: you have an image problem?

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Speaker 2: Mody's response to this question was, essentially, there aren't a

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Speaker 2: lot of people accusing me of this, literally only a handful.

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Speaker 4: I think it's not.

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Speaker 6: Proper to say people there are two or three person

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Speaker 6: those who used to dog in this terminology, and I

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Speaker 6: always say God bless them.

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Speaker 2: There's a bit of back and forth. Mody appears to

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Speaker 2: look calm, the journalist continues to press him, and then

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Speaker 2: Mody abruptly ends the interview.

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Speaker 1: It lasts all of three minutes.

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Speaker 2: And Mody said in an interview later quoted by Times

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Speaker 2: Now that he did absolutely the right thing in two

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Speaker 2: thousand and two.

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Speaker 6: I'mists I'm a patuity. Nothing is it wrong. I'm a

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Speaker 6: born Hindu, nothing is it wrong. So I'm a Hindu

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Speaker 6: national list. So you can say, yes, I'm a list.

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Speaker 2: Yet the criticism of Modi didn't just come from within India.

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Speaker 2: The US, UK and EU all denied him visus over

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Speaker 2: allegations stemming from the riots. But in the face of

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Speaker 2: all this criticism, Modi would start a campaign to rebuild

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Speaker 2: his image, quietly laying the groundwork to triple his party

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Speaker 2: supporters and become one of India's most powerful figures in decades,

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Speaker 2: power that would soon turn him from international pariah to

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Speaker 2: literally being embraced by global leaders and wealthy tycoons.

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Speaker 5: When foreigners think of new India, they think of a

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Speaker 5: new Gujarat. How did this transformation happen because of one leader.

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Speaker 2: He would turn India into a place everywhere one is talking.

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Speaker 5: About our beloved leader who has emerged as the greatest

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Speaker 5: global leader of our times. And he is Shane narendr

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Speaker 5: Vhai Modi, the most successful prime minister in India's history.

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Speaker 4: Business loves it so vibrant Gujarad and his friendship with

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Speaker 4: billionnaires and gujar Riots are all kind of intertwined.

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Speaker 2: So how does Mody turn one of the biggest political

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Speaker 2: crises in his favor to become the most powerful man

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Speaker 2: India scene in decades. That's in our next episode, Part two,

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Speaker 2: Narentro Modi's Big Comeback. This is the Big Take Asia

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Speaker 2: from Bloomberg News.

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Speaker 1: I'm wanh.

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Speaker 2: This episode was produced by Young Young and Naomi. It

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Speaker 2: was edited by Caitlin Kenney, Daniel ten Kate, Emma O'Brien,

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Speaker 2: Nishantahia and Jeanette Rodriguez. It was mixed by Alex Suguiera

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Speaker 2: and Blake Maples and the story was fact checked by

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Speaker 2: Thomas lu and David Fox. Special thanks to Sanjai pr

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Speaker 2: Supriya Batra, taymor Soban Niam Mushaven, Elizabeth Ponso, and the

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Speaker 2: Bloomberg Originals team. Nicole Beamster Bower is our executive producer,

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Speaker 2: and Sage Bauman is Bloomberg's Head of Podcasts.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to The Big Take, Asia.

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Speaker 2: Please follow this show wherever you listen to podcasts. See

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Speaker 2: you don't miss Part two of Narender Modi