As Amit Shah turns 60, 5 things about India’s ‘modern-day Chanakya’

India’s Home Minister Amit Shah turned 60 on Tuesday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several other leading politicians greeted him on his birthday. Shah has been Modi’s political companion for decades, both having learnt the art of politics in Gujarat, often referred to as the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) electoral laboratory.

Taking to X, Modi said, “He [Shah] is a hardworking leader, who has devoted his life towards strengthening the BJP. He has made a mark as an exceptional administrator and is making many efforts to realise the vision of a Viksit Bharat. Praying for his long and healthy life.”  

Shah, who headed the BJP, received laudatory comments from his successor and incumbent party president JP Nadda, who hailed his predecessor’s commitment, hard work and organisational skills as a source of inspiration. Shah’s significant contribution to the country’s internal security is unforgettable, Nadda said.

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Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, the former BJP president, said Shah’s role in the development of India as well as the party is laudable.
BJP allies including Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Janata Dal-United leader Lalan Singh and Lok Janshakti Party (Ramvilas) Chirag Paswan — both ministers in the Modi Cabinet — also greeted the home minister.

India’s ‘modern-day Chanakya’

Credited with multiple electoral victories for the BJP, Shah is often referred to as the ‘Chanakya of modern-day Indian politics’. Born in Gujarat, Shah has been a trusted ally of Modi for close to four decades.

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An astute political mind, he is considered instrumental in the party’s growth under Modi’s leadership and crafting its electoral strategy. His role in the 2014 general election by clean-sweeping biggest political state Uttar Pradesh was instrumental in Modi’s first term victory in 2014.  

5 things about Amit Shah

2. He was born on October 22, 1964, in Mumbai to Kusumben Anil Chandra Shah. Shah studied in Gujarat’s Mansa until the age of 16, after which his family moved to Ahmedabad.  

3. Besides his mother, Indian freedom movement activist and intellectual luminary Kanhaiyalal Maneklal Munshi influenced Shah, who got into political activities when he was 13 during the election campaign of Maniben Patel, the daughter of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Maniben was a Jana Sangh candidate from the Mehsana Lok Sabha seat.  

4. Later, Shah joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and became the joint secretary of its students’ wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad in Gujarat in 1982. He joined the BJP’s Yuva Morcha in 1987.

5. Shah was made Ahmedabad BJP’s secretary in 1989, when he took active part in the Ram Janmabhoomi movement and also the Ekta Yatra. It was around the same time, Shah was asked to manage the election campaign for LK Advani, who was with the election campaign in the Gandhinagar constituency.  

6. In the early 1990s, Shah came in touch with Modi, who was then the Gujarat BJP secretary. Shah contested legislative election in 1997, debuting in the Sarkhej assembly by-election and winning it by a margin of 25,000 votes. Modi made his electoral debut four years later after he was appointed the Gujarat chief minister. Their political partnership developed into close friendship. He became Modi’s home minister in 2019 during his second term as India’s prime minister. Shah carried out one of the key political agenda of the BJP by introducing the Modi government’s resolutions in Parliament to scrap the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, bifurcating it into two Union Territories — the other being Ladakh.