By Sushil Kutty
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday-Friday was out on a foreign sojourn, an official two-nation visit, when he surpassed Indira Gandhi as India’s second-longest serving prime minister in consecutive terms — completing 4,078 uninterrupted, successive, days in office.
Indira Gandhi’s continuous tenure was never as much highlighted as Prime Minister Modi’s will be. Of course, Indira’s era wasn’t social media nor smartphone. People kept track with an ear to the ground. When Indira Gandhi was assassinated, the news spread as fast as any social media post does these days.
People were crowding the AIIMS no sooner did the ambulance roll in. Indira Gandhi’s record tenure was lost in the quiet grief that gripped the nation, especially Delhi, where the dastardly assassination took place in the most egregious and audacious manner.
It was only later that it was revealed that Indira’s grandson Rahul Gandhi, now the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, could have been a witness to the barrage of gunfire that left Indira’s frail body riddled in bullets.
In her first term, Indira Gandhi held office from January 24, 1966, to March 24, 1977, serving 4,077 days. Modi, currently 74, took office as Prime Minister for the first time on May 26, 2014. Today, he is on his third straight term, which began in June 2024, with a less than majority BJP performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Prime Minister Modi now trails Jawaharlal Nehru, who served for 16 years and 286 days, from August 15, 1947 to May 27, 1964. Nehru started his first term at ‘Freedom at Midnight’, which was an event on its own and spawned the award-winning ‘Midnight’s Children’, Salman Rushdie book without controversy.
There is no such celebrity book linked to any of Prime Minister Modi’s three terms though there will be any number of ‘Modibhakts’ to apportion to him glory in any number of ways. If Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi had “helpers” to boost image, they kept a low profile and the times then were different.
Communication tools were nascent and information wasn’t booming unlike today when what happens between Trump and Zelensky in the Oval is known to circles on the other side of the planet in New Delhi within half a second give or take a minute here or there.
And Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi didn’t just take off on foreign tours like Prime Minister Modi does these days. The other day Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in the United Kingdom, the next day he was in the Maldives in a sea of emerald green!
Does that make Prime Minister Modi’s second-longest tenure exceptional, extraordinarily unforgettable? As it is, Prime Minister Modi is the first and only non-Congress prime minister with two full terms and a third running term under his belt. A captive media and a closet full of loyal ministers ensure Narendra Modi remains prime minister. The goal is to ensure he remains PM by hook or crook.
Besides, like somebody who couldn’t hold his tongue said, Modi also happens to be the first Prime Minister born in independent India, a distinction missed by Nehru, Indira, Shastri, VP Singh, Charan Singh, Chandrasekhar, HD Deve Gowda and Manmohan Singh.
Ask the lazy laconic and he’ll say, “Yep, guy’s a lucky critter, the longest-serving prime minister from a non-Congress party!” What shouldn’t be overlooked is Prime Minister Narendra Modi might have won a lot of votes to become the second longest serving Prime Minister, but does that make Modi the most popular Prime Minister, ever?
Yep, in certain circles, yes, Prime Minister Modi is indeed a highly popular Prime Minister. And media anchors set their conclusions based on that. But his popularity has been taking hits and in the last Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Modi lost lakhs of votes in the Lok Sabha elections which he fought from his Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency.
Third straight time and the setback set the BJP tally in both Uttar Pradesh and India at less than full mast — only 240 MPs. Since then, there is no idea where Modi stands in the popularity sweepstakes. In Delhi, where the BJP won all seven Lok Sabha seats, and where the BJP formed government after 27 years in political wilderness, Modi is vilified for the bulldozer action running riot in the nation’s capital.
Yet, there’s no guarantee that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be evicted or he has plans to call it a day. Modi and the BJP look like they’re aiming for the long haul. The goal is ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 1947 and it’s a BJP promise to itself more than for the nation’s people at large. And ‘Viksit Dilli’ is part of the action.
Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta has been given charge of the mission. If it is SIR that has laid waste opposition plans in Bihar to be followed by a similar plan for West Bengal, Delhi’s voter-list lies ripped in ribbons after the “tabad-thod” demolitions — and without the ‘jhuggi’, there cannot be a vote-bank! A SIR like exercise looks like on the cards in Delhi, too.
Everything’s happening according to plan. The plan is to ensure Prime Minister Narendra Modi remains ‘Prime Minister’ for the longest time and surpasses even the tenure of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru now that Indira Gandhi has been relegated to No.3. Like Jagdeep Dhankar said, what’s left then is ‘divine intervention’.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will live to be a 100! It is in his genes. And a mushroom diet does wonders to longevity! Already, people have stopped asking and talking of the time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “CM Gujarat”, from 2001 to 2014 — the longest Chief Minister in Gujarat’s history.
Modi’s prime ministerial tenure seems to have erased his chief ministerial tenure from people’s minds. And, today, despite the BJP losing seats in the Lok Sabha, Prime Minister Modi appears to be as secure a prime minister as he was after 2019 when the BJP took its Lok Sabha tally to 303. He leads an NDA coalition and there have been almost zero hiccups. The man himself looks set for Prime Minister for life! (IPA Service)
