The news cycle this week has been overwhelmed by discussions over Narendra Modi surpassing Jawaharlal Nehru as the longest-serving continuously elected Prime Minister of India. There’s been much comparison between Modi and Nehru and who did more for India. So far so good, and move on to the future.
Because Modi isn’t done yet. He’s got three years in this tenure and will be in the contest in 2029. That’s for sure. And who knows, in 2034 as well.After all, Donald Trump has talked in the past about a third term despite his constitutional limitations, and he will turn 80 this week. Further, a hot mic caught Vladimir Putin telling Xi Jinping at a military parade in Beijing to mark 80 years since the end of World War II on 3 September, 2025, that with today’s medical advances one could rule till 150.
Let’s not lose our way, however. It’s a perfectly reasonable presumption that Modi will be around for a significant enough time for us to reflect on the challenges that lie ahead. I will list five.
The first is obviously that he must shake off the past. These comparisons with Nehru, Indira or any others should end. Modi was 14 when Nehru died and I wasn’t yet seven. Henceforth, Modi must be defined by his own epoch and not one that visited India so far back.For the longest-serving continuously elected Prime Minister, the comparisons should be with what he did in his first 12 years. That’s the only benchmark that would benefit India, and him. If he wants to build a lasting legacy, it can’t be as the greatest ‘anti-Nehru’ in India’s political history. It will have to be a legacy in his own name.For that, he has to now stop leaning on the past, whether to celebrate today’s achievements or explain away present-day setbacks. The current/capital account crisis and the weakening rupee can no longer be explained away by asking, ‘have you forgotten how bad such crises were in 1991 or 2013?’ or as Mukesh sang, Prem Dhawan’s words, in the 1960 Sunil Dutt-starrer Hum Hindustani: “Chhodo kal ki baatein, kal ki baat purani (chuck the past, write a new story).” Can Modi and the BJP move on and forward now? This is Modi’s first challenge as he passes the 4,399-day record.
