Shall we dance, Mr Modi? His tattoos for this year's Garba

A woman gets her arm inked with a Narendra Modi tattoo

Ahmedabad: Move over, Shah Rukh Khan. There's a new man in Garba town.

Till last year, young men and women in Ahmedabad flaunted temporary tattoos of Bollywood's rich and famous. This year, not so much.

"What better way than having Narendra Modi's tattoos on Garba revelers? There is a craze amongst the youth for making temporary tattoos and we in our own way are contributing to his popularity," said Jagruti Parmar, a tattoo artist at a parlour in Ahmedabad.

Mr Modi, the 64-year-old chief minister of Gujarat, is running for Prime Minister.  And many in his home state want to do their bit for his campaign in the nine days of Garba - the dance all-nighters that are the highlight of the nine-day Navratra festival.

"Girls want to flaunt their tattoos with their backless cholis (blouses). Apart from general tattoo designs, Narendra Modi tattoos are the latest trend during the Garba," said Shalini Saxena, who got a Modi tattoo on her back.

Mr Modi's young male supporters are getting his face imprinted on their biceps. So for this Garba season, it's all about "NaMo, shall we dance?"

गुजरात के मुख्‍यमंत्री के तौर पर नरेंद्र मोदी ने पूरे किए 12 साल

नरेंद्र मोदी ने 7 अक्टूबर यानी कि कल गुजरात के मुख्यमंत्री के तौर पर लगातार 12 साल पूरा कर लिए हैं. इस दौरान उन्होंने 'विकास के गुजरात मॉडल' को भुनाने में कामयाबी पाई ही, 2014 के आम चुनावों के लिए बीजेपी के पीएम पद के उम्मीदवार बनने में भी सफल हुए.
एक सरकारी विज्ञप्ति के मुताबिक, 'यह एक रिकॉर्ड है. किसी भी मुख्यमंत्री ने लगातार 12 साल तक सेवा नहीं की है.' किसी जमाने में गुजरात के एक रेलवे स्टेशन पर चाय बेचने वाले मोदी एक प्रचारक के तौर पर राष्ट्रीय स्वयंसेवक संघ (आरएसएस) में शामिल हुए थे और फिर बीजेपी से जुड़े. आरएसएस में प्रचारक की भूमिका निभाने से लेकर अब तक मोदी ने राजनीति में एक लंबा सफर तय किया है.
मोदी ने 2001 में गुजरात के मुख्यमंत्री पद की कमान संभाली थी. उनसे पहले केशुभाई पटेल राज्य के मुखिया थे. मुख्यमंत्री बनने के बाद से मोदी लगातार तीन विधानसभा चुनावों में जीत हासिल कर विपक्ष को एक तरीके से हाशिए पर धकेल चुके हैं. साल 2014 के लोकसभा चुनावों के लिए 63 साल के मोदी को पिछले महीने बीजेपी का प्रधानमंत्री पद का उम्मीदवार बनाया गया.

Narendra Modi a good administrator, but he should make BJP 'secular': Jagan Mohan Reddy

Hyderabad: Jagan Mohan Reddy, who began an indefinite fast yesterday to protest against the Centre's decision to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh, has said that he hopes the BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is able to give the party a 'secular' tag.

"How can you discriminate against someone just because they are born with a particular region. This kind of insecurity leads to internal terrorism. This situation should change and Narendra Modi should change the BJP. Every party should be secular," Mr Reddy told NDTV last night. He also said that that it is 'indisputable' that the Gujarat Chief Minister is a good administrator.

Earlier, Mr Reddy amped up his attack considerably against the Congress.

"Someone wanted their son to become PM and divided the state," Mr Reddy said referring to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and her son Rahul, who is No. 2 in the party.

The government's decision earlier this week to carve out one of the three regions in Andhra Pradesh as a new state has left the other two parts, jointly referred to as 'Seemandhra', seething with protests. Today was the second day of the strike in the 13 districts in the region.
Mr Reddy and his party, the YSR Congress, draw their support from Seemandhra.

Yesterday, Mr Reddy challenged the Congress to explain why it cannot reverse the decision on Telangana given that just last week it withdrew a contentious executive order designed to protest convicted MPs after Mr Gandhi described it as 'nonsense.'

Mr Reddy's father, YSR Reddy, was a senior Congressman and Chief Minister of the state when he died in a chopper crash in 2009. Mr Reddy exited the party, claiming he had been sidelined by the Congress.

He left jail just 11 days ago after spending more than a year in prison on corruption charges. The case against him is still being investigated.

Before I became Chief Minister, I hadn't even stood for being elected class monitor: Narendra Modi

New Delhi:  Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was in Delhi today, at an event where students from 200 colleges shared their ideas for change in India. He arrived at Delhi's Thyagraj stadium at about 11 in the morning and stayed through the day, as presentations were made and other political leaders spoke. In his concluding address, Mr Modi focused on governance and pitched his Gujarat model.

     Here's our pick of Modi's five best quotes from his address to students: 

1. Before I became Chief Minister, I had not even stood for being elected class monitor in school.
2. My identity is of a hindutvawadi - but I say pehle shauchalaya phir develaya (toilets before temples). I define secularism as nation first, India first.
3. In my family, no one knew the P of Politics... I used to sell tea on trains and today I stand here in front of you. Stop thinking where you come from. If you want to change the country, start walking and you will find a way. If you move forward with an attitude that gives and not takes, the world will be at your feet.
4. Governments have a psychology of secrecy, I say you need openness for good governance. In Gujarat, we keep draft policies online and invited every stakeholder to share views. By and large, policies beneficial to the state have evolved.
5. I was asked if there will be early polls - I said even to have early polls, the govt has to take a decision and this govt is famously indecisive.

Narendra Modi tells advertising executives why marketing India is tough

Mumbai: For the first time since he was declared the BJP's choice for prime minister, Narendra Modi visited Mumbai today.

Mr Modi landed shortly after 5 pm and was welcomed by a huge gathering of party workers who had assembled there to greet him. 

He then travelled to Bandra to the Bharat Diamond Bourse - the world's largest diamond exchange - to address diamond traders, most of who are from Gujarat and are loyal supporters of the chief minister.

"Go to Google and take out a print-out of all the things against me... the long list won't fit even in this room. But, despite this, the people have always supported me," Mr Modi claimed.

After that, he was the keynote speaker at a dinner  for top ad executives from India and abroad.

"The challenge in projecting Brand India to the world is that we don't have confidence in our product," he said. "We should recognize our strengths to be able to market ourselves," he added.

The chief minister said that in his opinion, the world's best communicator was Mahatma Gandhi. "He always got his message across, and was never misunderstood," he said.