On June 10, 2026 Narendra Modi became the longest-serving Indian Prime Minister.

He took oath of office on 26 May, 2014 in his first term after defeating the Congress-led UPA. He still holds office of Prime Minister, serving his third consecutive term. In doing so, he surpassed the statistics of Independent India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, whose tenure as Prime Minister amounted to 4,398 days (from May 13, 1952 to May 27, 1964). Modi on the other hand, completed 4,399 days as Prime Minister on June 10, 2026, beginning May 26 2014.

The political party to which Modi belongs to- the BJP, and the ND Alliance it had been heading to govern India since May 2014 went gaga over the PM’s historic milestone. And Why not? He certainly deserved the accolades for the numerical feat. The Union cabinet went many a step further to pass a resolution on the occasion. Singing paeans, not only to the numerical aspect of the record-breaking feat, but also for the ‘spectacular’ achievements of the BJP-led NDA since 2014, under the assertive leadership of Modi. Why not?

  While some of Modi’s policies have certainly been controversial and even debatable, his assertive, and confident style of functioning buoyed by a massive Parliamentary majority certainly are commendable.

While Statistics and nation-wide accolades merit justification, an exercise entirely uncalled for and illogical was also being indulged in concomitantly. That of attempting comparison of the 24th Prime Minister of Independent India with the 1st, when none existed.

Comparing their educational backgrounds, toddler steps into politics, and even personal and family specifications make no sense, as it is inappropriate. Certainly, the circumstances into which the two were born, and political circumstances existing in the then India, render such an exercise a nonstarter.

However, the fact that the BJP still leaves no stone unturned to blame India’s first Prime Minister for every ill under the sun to have befallen India, and to harp on ‘dynastic politics’ that was encouraged within the Nehru-Gandhi family at the drop of the hat, lend relevance to dwell on certain facts. Not comparison. And also to remind the incumbent that 4, 399 days were certainly sufficient to rectify the alleged wrongdoings indulged in by the the first person who occupied the esteemed ‘chair’ for 4,398 days. 

Before assuming office of Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru was one of the favorite, close and trusted lieutenants of Mahatma Gandhi. When the latter won freedom from the colonial yolk on the midnight of August 15, 1947 non-violently, Nehru had a tryst to keep with destiny, and miles to tread through dark, deep and lovely woods, before he slept. Modi wasn’t even born then. While Nehru received a neonatal nation oozing blood from the deep gash of partition from history’s womb, Modi received on a silver platter a vibrant nation, known for secular and democratic credentials, well on the road to development fuelled on scientific temper, when he was sworn in Prime Minister on May 26, 2014.

It is appropriate at this instant, also to realize that by the time infantile India was already a developing nation under a family, allegedly functioning on nepotism, Pakistan, the other part of the sub continental Siamese twins separated on religious lines, thanks to Mohammed Ali Jinnah, was already on her way as a rogue nation, known for unsavory credentials of cross-border terrorism, religious intolerance and indoctrination.

While Institutions of higher education like IIMs and IITs, and dams to aid the farmers, and premium healthcare institutions like the AIIMS were being built in India, Pakistan was busy constructing factories of terror, directed by the ISI, supervised of her Army, and blessed by Islamic clerics.

While India was being governed by legitimate governments, elected through legitimate elections as per constitutional directions, Pakistani governance was founded on distinct fragility with power-mongering Army chiefs threatening to usurp governance at their convenience.

While India blossomed into a modern developing democracy, kick-started by an imaginative Nehru, gifted with distinct farsightedness, Pakistan lost her way under an Islamic zealot, Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

It is also a distinct certainty that were a neonatal India to be nursed by the likes of Modi, and an organization like the RSS, of which Modi was, and is still a diehard functionary, India would’ve been Hindustan, the growth of which would have been mired in quick sands of extreme-right majoritarianism. Where instead of IIMs, IITs and AIIMS, numerous temples would have been constructed in lieu of numerous dismantled mosques. A nation which blossomed into a mature democracy borne on the wings of five-year plans, the brainchild of Nehru, would have been a dwarf, stunted under the weight of majority muscle-flexing and grotesque Islamophobia, and other phobias. Whose constitution would never have carried ideals of ‘secularism’, ‘sovereignty’, and ‘democracy’ in its Preamble.

While there is no comparison between Nehru and Modi, it was extremely providential that it was Jawaharlal Nehru who was destined to nurse a country, located east of the Radcliffe line, born on August 15, 1947!