Sushil Kumar Modi
Encyclopedia
Sushil Kumar Modi is an India
n politician from the Bharatiya Janata Party
and is the current Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister of Bihar, India. He is a lifelong member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
. He was recently appointed the Chairman of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers for the Implementation of Goods and Service Tax.
He started his schooling with Mount Caramel School, Patna where he did his Upper and Lower KG and also Class 1. In St Michaels’ High School, Patna he completed Class 2 and 3 and then joined St Severin’s High School for Class 4th to 6th. He then joined Ram Mohan Roy Seminary for his final schooling i.e. 8th to 10th. It is noteworthy that Mr Modi was a bright student from the start and throughout his school life he secured 1st division.
He did his pre-university from Commerce College, Patna and B.Sc. from B.N.College, Patna with a 1st Division. He graduated from the state’s premier institution Patna Science College, Patna University and did his Botany Hons in 1973 securing 2nd position in the whole University.
He was a proud scholar and holder of the National Merit Scholarship for Academic Excellence.
To pursue his academic career further he enrolled himself in the M.Sc Botany Course in Patna University, but elsewhere lay his calling and as Shri Jai Prakash Narayan called on the young, zealous students from Bihar to make a change in society, he decided to participate in the movement and left College for a year. But who knew that it was the last of his College days and his first of steps into the world of public welfare and politics.
In 1962, Shri Modi came in contact with Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) for the first time and from then on he has been its active member till date.
In 1968, he started with the Three Year Officer’s Training Course (OTC) and did one month training at Bihar Sharif wherein he underwent rigorous physical training. The second year camp was held in Siwan and the third and final in Nagpur thus completing the highest RSS training course.
After completing Matriculation, he devoted a month as a Vistarak (Whole Time Worker) and worked in Danapur, Khagol starting various RSS branches at different places.
As a keen member, he was made the Incharge of evening branches of RSS Patna Town.
During his work in RSS, he came in contact with Shri Govindacharya, the renowned thinker of the Country who had a great influence on him.
He also came in contact with Guru Golwalkar, Shri Bala Saheb Devras and Professor Rajendra Singh of RSS and they had a great influence on him and his life. It was only for their influence on him that Mr Modi decided that he would devote his life for work with the RSS in India.
Mr Modi belonged to a family of traders and had a family business of readymade garments. Concerned with his keen interest in social work and his devotion towards RSS, his family wanted him to continue and carry on the family business. However, determined that Mr Modi was, Shri Modi struggled hard within his family to do what he thought would be in his best interest and thus continued with his work for the people. The main issue was that the Modi Family was not related to politics and no one in the family had even thought of joining the same and thus this decision of his was not accepted by the family.
Mr Modi married Shrimati Jessie George in the year 1987. She was from Mumbai and the marriage was an inter caste, inter religious marriage. The marriage was blessed by Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee, Shri Nana Deshmukh, Shri Karpoori Thakur and all the top leaders of ABVP, BJP, RSS and the local leaders from other political parties.
It was during his marriage ceremony that Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee urged Mr Modi in front of the public that he had done enough work for the RSS and it was time he joined politics and served the people and society in a better way.
Bihar Student’s Movement of 1974 under the leadership of Janata party stalwarts like Karpuri Thakur, Satyendra Narayan Sinha, Raj Narain &
Ram Manohar Lohia.
Mr Modi was arrested 5 times during JP Movement and the Emergency and was kept in jail for 19 months. He was booked under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) and various other acts for launching a movement against the then Congress from1973-77.
As soon as emergency was imposed on 25 June 1975, all the top political leaders and more than one lakh political activists were put in the prison and even censorship was imposed on the press. Mr Modi too, was arrested on 30 June 1975 and kept in the prisons of Samastipur, Darbhanga, Buxar, Hazaribag, Bhagalpur and also in the PMCH Prisoner Ward and remained in Jail for 19 months continuously.
He was finally released in February 1977 from jail and even as all his contemporaries decided to contest the next elections, he took the bold step of not contesting the elections but working for the party and hece was made the State Secretary of Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad.
From 1977 to 1986, he held different posts including that of State Organizing Secretary, Bihar, All India Secretary, incharge of UP and Bihar and then the All India General Secretary of Vidyarthi Parishad which is the biggest Nationalist Student Organization of the Country. During this tenure at the top he led a movement against the declaration of Urdu as the 2nd language of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Concerned about the issue of foreign infiltration from Bangladesh in the bordering districts of Bihar he raised the issue and after Assam, a movement against foreign infiltrators was launched in Bihar under his leadership.
Working hard and with dedication and commitment, in the year 1995 he won the election for a second time securing 64,134 votes and defeating his nearest rival by more than 32,000 votes.
He was elected for the third consecutive time from Patna Constituency in 2000 securing a convincing win with 85,832 votes defeating the nearest candidate who could secure only 19,763 votes. He won by one of the highest margins in Bihar.
As soon as he entered politics in 1990, he was made the Chief Whip of the BJP Bihar Legislature Party and continued fighting against the wrongs of the Government and for the people of Bihar till 1996 when he was chosen as the Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly from where he became an even bigger menace for the Lalu Government exposing the ills done to the state and he continued holding the post till 2004 becoming the longest serving Opposition Leader.
As a responsible and dedicated representative of the people, Mr Modi exposed the corruption prevailing in the system. Shri Modi was the main petitioner who filed the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Patna High Court in the famous fodder scam case of Bihar, which was the first major blow to the Lalu Raj. Shri Lalu Yadav had to resign from the Chief Minister’s Office and was sent to jail. Shri Lalu Yadav passed on the CM’s chair to his wife Mrs Rabri Devi.
Mr Modi was instrumental in exposing a number of other scams in Bihar during Lalu’s regime such as the Bitumen Scam of 1997 being one of the main petitioners to file the PIL. A CBI probe was ordered by the High Court which led to the PWD Minister resigning from his post.
Since Shri Modi had served the Patna Constituency for 15 years and thus took a leap and fought the Lok Sabha elections in 2004 from the constituency of Bhagalpur and won with 3,45,137 votes defeating his nearest rival by 1,17,840 votes who secured 2,27,297. Thus Mr Modi proved his mettle for the fourth time with this win.
In the year 2000, when Mr Nitish Kumar became the Chief Minister for the first time, Mr Modi was made the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs.
Shri Modi was one of those few leaders who stood for the division of Bihar and the formation of the State of Jharkhand.
Finally, when the historic election of 2004 took place, the BJP-JD (U) combine won the elections and came to power ending the rule of Lalu-Rabri after 15 years. Even though Mr Modi did not contest the elections, he was elected the leader of Bihar BJP Legislature Party unanimously. Thus, Mr Modi who was a Member of Parliament from Bhagalpur resigned from the post to take over as the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar. He was given the all important Finance Portfolio along with a number of other portfolios. In June 2008, there was secret ballot in which the MLA’s of BJP Bihar had to vote for their leader and Mr Modi again won with a convincing majority and continued as the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar.
In the recent elections of 2010, the BJP-JD (U) combine swept the elections winning 206 of the 243 seats in the State. It was under his able leadership and guidance that the BJP won 92 of the 102 seats it had fought with a strike rate of 90.1% which had not been registered by the BJP anywhere in the country. BJP’s performance was well acknowledged and came for immense praise from all quarters.
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n politician from the Bharatiya Janata Party
Bharatiya Janata Party
The Bharatiya Janata Party ,; translation: Indian People's Party) is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Indian National Congress. Established in 1980, it is India's second largest political party in terms of representation in the parliament...
and is the current Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister of Bihar, India. He is a lifelong member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or National Patriotic Organization), also known the Sangh, is a right-wing Hindu nationalist, paramilitary, volunteer, and allegedly militant organization for Hindu males in India...
. He was recently appointed the Chairman of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers for the Implementation of Goods and Service Tax.
Early life
Sushil Kumar Modi was born on 5 January 1952 to Late Shri Moti Lal Modi and Late Smt. Ratna Devi.He started his schooling with Mount Caramel School, Patna where he did his Upper and Lower KG and also Class 1. In St Michaels’ High School, Patna he completed Class 2 and 3 and then joined St Severin’s High School for Class 4th to 6th. He then joined Ram Mohan Roy Seminary for his final schooling i.e. 8th to 10th. It is noteworthy that Mr Modi was a bright student from the start and throughout his school life he secured 1st division.
He did his pre-university from Commerce College, Patna and B.Sc. from B.N.College, Patna with a 1st Division. He graduated from the state’s premier institution Patna Science College, Patna University and did his Botany Hons in 1973 securing 2nd position in the whole University.
He was a proud scholar and holder of the National Merit Scholarship for Academic Excellence.
To pursue his academic career further he enrolled himself in the M.Sc Botany Course in Patna University, but elsewhere lay his calling and as Shri Jai Prakash Narayan called on the young, zealous students from Bihar to make a change in society, he decided to participate in the movement and left College for a year. But who knew that it was the last of his College days and his first of steps into the world of public welfare and politics.
Personal life
During Sino-India War of 1962, Mr Modi was active in organising and mobilising the school students and acknowledging his efforts, he was appointed Commandment by the Civil Defence to train the civilians and students to maintain their physical fitness and teach them to parade.In 1962, Shri Modi came in contact with Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) for the first time and from then on he has been its active member till date.
In 1968, he started with the Three Year Officer’s Training Course (OTC) and did one month training at Bihar Sharif wherein he underwent rigorous physical training. The second year camp was held in Siwan and the third and final in Nagpur thus completing the highest RSS training course.
After completing Matriculation, he devoted a month as a Vistarak (Whole Time Worker) and worked in Danapur, Khagol starting various RSS branches at different places.
As a keen member, he was made the Incharge of evening branches of RSS Patna Town.
During his work in RSS, he came in contact with Shri Govindacharya, the renowned thinker of the Country who had a great influence on him.
He also came in contact with Guru Golwalkar, Shri Bala Saheb Devras and Professor Rajendra Singh of RSS and they had a great influence on him and his life. It was only for their influence on him that Mr Modi decided that he would devote his life for work with the RSS in India.
Mr Modi belonged to a family of traders and had a family business of readymade garments. Concerned with his keen interest in social work and his devotion towards RSS, his family wanted him to continue and carry on the family business. However, determined that Mr Modi was, Shri Modi struggled hard within his family to do what he thought would be in his best interest and thus continued with his work for the people. The main issue was that the Modi Family was not related to politics and no one in the family had even thought of joining the same and thus this decision of his was not accepted by the family.
Mr Modi married Shrimati Jessie George in the year 1987. She was from Mumbai and the marriage was an inter caste, inter religious marriage. The marriage was blessed by Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee, Shri Nana Deshmukh, Shri Karpoori Thakur and all the top leaders of ABVP, BJP, RSS and the local leaders from other political parties.
It was during his marriage ceremony that Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee urged Mr Modi in front of the public that he had done enough work for the RSS and it was time he joined politics and served the people and society in a better way.
Early years in public life
Shri Modi was elected Cabinet Member of Patna University Students Union in the year 1971 and was then elected General Secretary, Patna University Student’s Union in 1973 when Shri Lalu Prasad Yadav was the President of the Union. This was the start of the career of Bihar’s two heavyweights, but who knew both would be poles apart and be each other’s biggest rivals in the times to come.In the year 1974 Mr Modi became a Member of Bihar Pradesh Chaatra(Student) Sangharsh Samiti which spearheaded the famousBihar Student’s Movement of 1974 under the leadership of Janata party stalwarts like Karpuri Thakur, Satyendra Narayan Sinha, Raj Narain &
Ram Manohar Lohia.
Mr Modi was arrested 5 times during JP Movement and the Emergency and was kept in jail for 19 months. He was booked under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) and various other acts for launching a movement against the then Congress from1973-77.
As soon as emergency was imposed on 25 June 1975, all the top political leaders and more than one lakh political activists were put in the prison and even censorship was imposed on the press. Mr Modi too, was arrested on 30 June 1975 and kept in the prisons of Samastipur, Darbhanga, Buxar, Hazaribag, Bhagalpur and also in the PMCH Prisoner Ward and remained in Jail for 19 months continuously.
He was finally released in February 1977 from jail and even as all his contemporaries decided to contest the next elections, he took the bold step of not contesting the elections but working for the party and hece was made the State Secretary of Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad.
From 1977 to 1986, he held different posts including that of State Organizing Secretary, Bihar, All India Secretary, incharge of UP and Bihar and then the All India General Secretary of Vidyarthi Parishad which is the biggest Nationalist Student Organization of the Country. During this tenure at the top he led a movement against the declaration of Urdu as the 2nd language of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Concerned about the issue of foreign infiltration from Bangladesh in the bordering districts of Bihar he raised the issue and after Assam, a movement against foreign infiltrators was launched in Bihar under his leadership.
Politics
Finally in the year 1990, he joined active politics and won from Patna Central Assembly and won with 31,021 votes with the second candidate getting 27,908 votes.Working hard and with dedication and commitment, in the year 1995 he won the election for a second time securing 64,134 votes and defeating his nearest rival by more than 32,000 votes.
He was elected for the third consecutive time from Patna Constituency in 2000 securing a convincing win with 85,832 votes defeating the nearest candidate who could secure only 19,763 votes. He won by one of the highest margins in Bihar.
As soon as he entered politics in 1990, he was made the Chief Whip of the BJP Bihar Legislature Party and continued fighting against the wrongs of the Government and for the people of Bihar till 1996 when he was chosen as the Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly from where he became an even bigger menace for the Lalu Government exposing the ills done to the state and he continued holding the post till 2004 becoming the longest serving Opposition Leader.
As a responsible and dedicated representative of the people, Mr Modi exposed the corruption prevailing in the system. Shri Modi was the main petitioner who filed the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Patna High Court in the famous fodder scam case of Bihar, which was the first major blow to the Lalu Raj. Shri Lalu Yadav had to resign from the Chief Minister’s Office and was sent to jail. Shri Lalu Yadav passed on the CM’s chair to his wife Mrs Rabri Devi.
Mr Modi was instrumental in exposing a number of other scams in Bihar during Lalu’s regime such as the Bitumen Scam of 1997 being one of the main petitioners to file the PIL. A CBI probe was ordered by the High Court which led to the PWD Minister resigning from his post.
Since Shri Modi had served the Patna Constituency for 15 years and thus took a leap and fought the Lok Sabha elections in 2004 from the constituency of Bhagalpur and won with 3,45,137 votes defeating his nearest rival by 1,17,840 votes who secured 2,27,297. Thus Mr Modi proved his mettle for the fourth time with this win.
In the year 2000, when Mr Nitish Kumar became the Chief Minister for the first time, Mr Modi was made the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs.
Shri Modi was one of those few leaders who stood for the division of Bihar and the formation of the State of Jharkhand.
Finally, when the historic election of 2004 took place, the BJP-JD (U) combine won the elections and came to power ending the rule of Lalu-Rabri after 15 years. Even though Mr Modi did not contest the elections, he was elected the leader of Bihar BJP Legislature Party unanimously. Thus, Mr Modi who was a Member of Parliament from Bhagalpur resigned from the post to take over as the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar. He was given the all important Finance Portfolio along with a number of other portfolios. In June 2008, there was secret ballot in which the MLA’s of BJP Bihar had to vote for their leader and Mr Modi again won with a convincing majority and continued as the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar.
In the recent elections of 2010, the BJP-JD (U) combine swept the elections winning 206 of the 243 seats in the State. It was under his able leadership and guidance that the BJP won 92 of the 102 seats it had fought with a strike rate of 90.1% which had not been registered by the BJP anywhere in the country. BJP’s performance was well acknowledged and came for immense praise from all quarters.
Positions held
| Period | Positions | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 1973–77 | General Secretary, Patna University Students Union | |
| 1983–86 | All India General Secretary, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad | |
| 1995–96 | Secretary, Bharatiya Janata Party | |
| 1996–2004 | Leader of Opposition | Bihar Legislative Assembly |
| 2000 | Minister, Parliamentary Affairs | Government of Bihar |
| 2000 | Minister, Parliamentary Affairs | Government of Bihar |
| 2004 | Member, Lok Sabha | 14th lok sabha |
| 1990–2004 | Member, Bihar Legislative Assembly | 3rd term |
| November 2005 – November 2010 | Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar | 3rd Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar |
| November 2005 – November 2010 | Finance Minister of Bihar | Finance Minister of Bihar |
| From 26 November 2010 | Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar | 4th Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar |
| From 26 November 2010 | Finance Minister of Bihar | Finance Minister of Bihar |