modi-marathon-man-of-statesmanship

On October 7 this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will complete 24 years in office as head of the elected state or the central government, a unique distinction that hardly has any parallels anywhere in the world. Since he became the Chief Minister of Gujarat on October 7, 2001, there has been no looking back. He has led the Bharatiya Janata Party to emphatic victories in six elections—three in Gujarat and three at the centre.

 

Late Jyoti Basu served as the Chief Minister of West Bengal continuously for 23 years, while Modi has served as the Chief Minister and Prime Minister for 24 years non-stop and is still going strong.

 

Modi’s rise from the ranks from a ‘Balswayamsevak’ (child RSS volunteer) to full time ‘pracharak’, then the Chief Minister of Gujarat and eventually the Prime Minister of India and one of the most successful Prime Ministers at that, is well known.

 

Modi continues to be a tireless and undefeated marathon man of politics and statesmanship. He is undoubtedly the marathon-statesman. He has, by far, remained invincible for the opposition. In his third term as the Prime Minister, the opposition still does not have any credible alternative agenda or leader to challenge Modi in 2029.

 

It is not just at the centre that Modi has been delivering victory after victory to the Bharatiya Janata Party; his unprecedented popularity has helped the party to win state elections as well. It goes to his credit that the BJP has made deep inroads into the states, which remained “politically and electorally inaccessible” for it, but have turned into saffron strongholds post-2014, like Haryana and Assam, to name just a few.

 

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Modi is the second longest continuously serving Prime Minister of the country after Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India. In fact, it will not be fair to compare Modi with Nehru in terms of his continuity in power. Nehru simply inherited the government from the British. He did not have any challenger against whom he had to fight or win the elections. Nehru always had a virtual walkover in the name of elections. This is not to suggest that there were any electoral manipulations.

 

Nehru was the second most popular leader of the country after Gandhi when India became independent. After Gandhi’s assassination, Nehru was actually “the most popular” leader and he proved himself to be the best Prime Minister India could have under those circumstances, both domestically and internationally. While at home he laid down the foundations of a strong democratic and progressive India with full focus on building infrastructure, internationally he raised India’s stature to great heights within a few years of achieving sovereignty.

 

Modi in sharp contrast had to fight his way to the top. Unlike Nehru, he did not inherit popularity, which he (Nehru) had already gained during the freedom struggle. Modi has always been maligned in vicious ways. Having been scrupulously honest with unparalleled administrative abilities that made “Gujarat Model” of development popular across the country, his critics and opponents really did not have anything against him with which they could corner him.

 

Yes, the deadly Gujarat riots did take place during the initial days of his tenure. In a propaganda-driven world, it is not very difficult to malign someone. Modi took over as the Chief Minister of Gujarat on October 7, 2021. On February 27, 2002, the Sabarmati Express train carrying ‘karsevaks’ from Ayodhya was attacked and set on fire near Godhra. Sixty ‘karsevaks’ were killed. This led to statewide protests across Gujarat ending up in violence and communal riots. As many as 1044 people were killed. Of them 790 were Muslims, and 254 Hindus.  

 

Modi has been blamed for failure to control the riots. It is difficult to imagine how a different Chief Minister would have acted when the situation turned out of control within no time. Moreover, it had not even been five months since he became the Chief Minister of the state. In fact, he did not have any previous administrative experience. Yes, as the Chief Minister of the state, final responsibility remains his. But to suggest his complicity in the riots, as his critics and detractors are alleging, is being too unfair to him. Since then, he has been in power continuously for 23 years. There has never ever been any indication or instance of any discrimination against him.

 

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Interestingly, Modi has built strong relations with Muslim countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia just to name a few.

 

One of the greatest achievements of Prime Minister Modi has been to provide political stability in the country. It was exactly after 40 years that India got a stable government with the winning party, the BJP, getting an absolute majority of its own. It was last in 1984 that any political party had got absolute majority of its own. Since then, no party got the winning numbers and Modi broke that pattern. He led the BJP to three consecutive victories at the centre, although in 2024, the BJP fell short of majority by 32 MPs, but the National Democratic Alliance got 292 MPs and emerged victorious.

 

Prior to Modi and after 1989, there was never any certainty about the governments lasting the full term, although a few governments did complete their tenure, but had to make multiple compromises for survival.

 

The inherent political stability in the successive governments headed by Modi enabled them to take major policy decisions, which would otherwise have been very difficult. While Narsimha Rao had to depend on and take the tacit support of the BJP for ushering in economic reforms, Modi did not have any such compulsions. And in case he had needed it he would never have got it, going by the way the opposition treats him.

 

The abrogation of Article 370 has been one of the greatest landmarks of the Modi government. Besides, the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which though has not been implemented as yet, would have been unimaginable during any other regime. Even the inauguration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya has been one of the remarkable achievements of the Modi government, though the main credit for building up the movement for the temple goes to veteran BJP leader LK Advani.

 

Another great achievement of Modi has been “zero tolerance” to terror attacks sponsored by Pakistan. After 1971, it was for the first time that India retaliated in the same measure after terror attacks like Uri, Pulwama and Pahalgam. “New normal” is retribution against terror and “zero tolerance”. 

 

On the economic front, during Modi's tenure the country's economy expanded by 66 percent crossing $3.8 trillion. India is now the fifth largest economy in the world and is projected to be the third, overtaking Japan and Germany, by 2028.

 

Also read: Modi stands vindicated on ceasefire; he didn’t surrender

 

His critics and detractors may try to malign him as a “dictator” and a “fascist”, but Modi continues to remain the most popular leader of the country. The opposition, having found no credible fault in him, has now started accusing him of “stealing the elections” with “electoral rolls manipulation”. Earlier, the same opposition would blame the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) for his recurring victories.

 

Surviving against all odds and that too in the times of “algorithms” driven social media narratives is no mean task. Modi has not just survived; he has done an impressive job. Looking around the world where not just banana states like Pakistan and Bangladesh are marred by political uncertainty and instability, even powerful democracies like France and the United Kingdom are threatened with political turmoil and unrest, Modi has managed to provide an effective and stable leadership.

 

While it is always teamwork that delivers the results, a lot depends on the captain, the leader who guides and navigates the team. Modi has been fortunate to have a good and effective team backed by a strong party organisation, plus the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which remains the bulwark and the hidden strength for the party and the Prime Minister.

 

It reminds one of the famous lines by great American poet, Robert Frost: “Woods are lovely dark and deep, but I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep and miles to go before I sleep.”