PM Modi to surpass Nehru’s record as longest continuously serving elected PM

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In his 12 years in office, Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted various welfare measures undertaken by his government. | Photo Credit: PTI

As numbers go, 4,399 may not appear significant in itself except to mathematicians who may find values of oddness and evenness around it. For political observers, however, the number marks a high watershed moment in the history of post-independent India, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi became the longest continuously serving person in that post.

On June 10th, Prime Minister Modi will be crossing the record set by India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who was first elected to the post in 1952 (his previous stint from 1947-52 was as head of an interim government as elections were yet to be institutionalised and held). Indira Gandhi had a fractured tenure totalling 14 years, the unbroken tenure of Prime Minister Modi for 12 years or in this case 4,399 days, therefore calls for closer examination.

Over the last 12 years, India has witnessed many transformations and at the core of these changes is the welfare of the poor and downtrodden. We have always been inspired by Antyodaya and our effort has always been to ensure that the benefits of development reach those who were…

According to Ajay Singh, former press secretary to Presidents Ram Nath Kovind and President Murmu, “milestones do not define an epoch of transformation.”

“The milestone of surpassing the record of former prime minister Nehru is remarkable, yet Prime Minister Modi will be remembered less for statistics and more for reimagining India’s politics in the most profound way. In his tenure, issues that had bedevilled the country for decades — the construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya, the attenuation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir as an irrelevant relic of the past, the taming of insurgency in the northeastern states, and the decimation of the menacing Naxalite movement — were finally consigned to the pages of history. In the arena of power politics, he stan