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On July 25, 2025 Prime Minister Narendra Modi surpassed Indira Gandhi as the second longest continuously serving Prime Minister of the country after Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. However, in terms of overall tenure, Modi remains the third longest serving Prime Minister.

 

However, Modi enjoys another rare and distinguished record, which may hardly be beaten ever that of serving as an elected head of the government consecutively for 8,690 days, as Chief Minister of Gujarat for more than 13 years, 4,610 days precisely and as Prime Minister for 4,780 days till date. He has continuously remained the elected head of the government, state, and centre, for more than 24 years, so far.

 

While Gandhi remained Prime Minister continuously from January 1966 to 1977 for 4,077 days, Modi surpassed that feat on Friday. Gandhi, in her second term, remained in office for one extra year due to the imposition of emergency. She did not have the popular mandate beyond 1976.

 

However, Gandhi was re-elected in 1980 General Elections and remained Prime Minister for four more years till October 31, 1984 when she was assassinated by her own bodyguards.

 

The longest and continuously serving Prime Minister remains Pandit Nehru who held office consecutively without a break from August 15, 1947 to May 27, 1964, almost 17 consecutive years totalling 6,130 days.

 

Any comparison between the Prime Ministers is quite a complex matter because they headed the governments in different times and different eras. Every Prime Minister of the country has contributed in his/ her own way and left a mark on history. From Nehru to Modi, India has had the best Prime Ministers like Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, PV Narsimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and Dr Manmohan Singh, all of whom made decisive impact on the country’s history and destiny.

 

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There were few others like Gulzari Nanda, who served just as a caretaker Prime Minister, Morarji Desai, Charan Singh, VP Singh, Chandershekhar, HD Deve Gowda and Inder Kumar Gujaral, all of whom had quite brief tenures providing them hardly enough time or chance to make much difference.

 

However, VP Singh, in his brief tenure of slightly less than a year changed the caste dynamics in the country by providing 27 per cent reservations to ‘Other Backward Classes’ across the country, that left India “socially fragmented” for some time, leading to widespread violence across the country on caste basis.

 

Modi stands out among all the Prime Ministers for one reason that he is a self-made leader who has risen from the ranks. Unlike Nehru and Indira, he did not inherit any political pedigree. Nor like Dr Manmohan Singh, who just became an “accidental Prime Minister” as Sonia Gandhi wanted to appoint someone loyal and compliant to that position.

 

Nehru was appointed Prime Minister in the immediate aftermath of the country’s liberation from British rule. He practically had no competition and the lone competitor he had in Sardar Patel, who himself opted out in the interest of the country. His repeated electoral victories cannot be compared with Modi’s, who has always faced stiff competition and strong opposition.

 

Indira Gandhi inherited her father’s legacy and a very strong Congress party. Although she did face resistance and rebellion for a while, her powerful political pedigree did come to her aid and she managed to survive and overcome the challenges.

 

Modi in comparison led his party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, to a decisive victory in 2014 General Elections, getting an absolute majority of its own for the first time. In fact, it was after a gap of 30 years, since 1984, that any political party had won a full majority of its own in the Parliament. Modi repeated the feat in 2019, improving the tally to 302. He again led the party to a significant victory for the third consecutive term in 2024, although this time the BJP fell a little short of absolute majority of its own.

 

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Modi has led his party to victory for six consecutive terms, three in Gujarat assembly and three in the General Elections. Modi provided “the winning” leadership and a capable captaincy to the BJP, which was backed by the strong RSS network spread across the country.

 

It is highly unimaginable that any leader can match or beat such a record of spectacular electoral performances anywhere in the world, not just in India. And all the elections have been flawlessly fair and without any doubt of any wrongdoings. People may accuse Modi of polarising people, but nobody can ever accuse him of having manipulated the elections or misused the electoral system or resorted to electoral malpractices. This, in fact, was proved in 2024, when he almost lost the elections against a combined opposition onslaught.

 

Nehru’s popularity remained intact, right up till his death, despite the disastrous Chinese aggression, which took the country completely off guard. He was loved and respected by people across the country, for multiple reasons. Also, he did not have any competitor or any rival or opponent, neither within the Congress, nor outside it.

 

Indira faced a more or less similar situation. The opposition had started consolidating itself. But Indira controlled a party that was deeply rooted across the country in every nook and corner. Faced with tough opposition, Indira succumbed to the temptation of authoritarianism and imposed emergency in June 1975. That is the only aberration and low point in her career as the leader of the country.

 

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Otherwise, her achievements even surpass her charismatic father, Pandit Nehru. Gandhi heralded revolutionary socialist reforms like the bank nationalisation and abolition of privy purses. In today’s world of privatisation, nationalisation of banks may sound odd. But in the late 1960s and early 1970s, it made credit available to every deserving person across the country. It may have had its negative fallout as well. But it served its purpose well for a long time.

 

Breaking Pakistan permanently into two parts and creating a new country Bangladesh was the greatest achievement of Gandhi. She not only changed the history, but the geography as well. Then came the nuclear tests - it was for the first time in her tenure that India tested nuclear bomb and entered the elite nuclear club.

 

Between Indira and Modi, there have been Prime Ministers like Rajiv Gandhi, the brain and architect behind the IT revolution in the country which has made India a software powerhouse; PV Narsimha Rao, who introduced economic liberalisation; Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Dr Manmohan Singh, both of whom did make significant contributions in their own way.

 

It is Modi, who is more like Indira than any other Prime Minister. Not even her son Rajiv was like Indira, who was aggressively decisive and would not think twice in going ahead with her decisions, as long as she thought these were in the national interest.

 

It was her audacious way of thinking and taking decisions that cost her life. Had she not approved military action on Sikh militants hiding inside the Golden Temple, holiest Sikh religious place, and then calling back her Sikh bodyguards who had been taken off from her duty, she would not have paid with her life.

 

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Unlike Indira, Modi may not have created a new country like Bangladesh, obviously because the times and circumstances have changed a great deal, but he did present India as a strong country with a strong leadership. It was for the first time under his leadership that India launched surgical strikes deep inside Pakistan in retaliation to repeated terror attacks. Otherwise, no Prime Minister would do it for 35 years before him. The terror architecture in Pakistan had taken India for granted that it can get away with anything and everything, including the Mumbai terror attack, when India did nothing.

 

The abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution of India, which was thought to be unimaginable, was done under Modi’s regime. Like Indira is remembered for creation of Bangladesh, Modi will be remembered for the abrogation of Article 370.

 

And like her going for nationalisation of banks, Modi’s economic reforms have been equally bold like the implementation of the GST regime and demonetisation. They may not have served the desired purpose, but the intention behind both the decisions was the country's interest.

 

That way Indira and Modi have shared common traits and capacity of aggressive decision making in the national interest. 

 

At the same time, there are certain differences as well. While it was difficult for Indira to review or reconsider her decisions, Modi has the capacity, resilience and courage to make corrections and review his decisions.

 

For example, the three Central farm laws, which despite being farmer friendly, were strongly resisted by the farmers and Modi withdrew them. This may be also because, unlike Indira, Modi faced a stronger and more powerful opposition. In Indira’s time, there was no “social media” either, which is an untamed, uncontrolled and an anarchic universe in itself, with devastatingly destabilising capacity for any regime or leader.

 

Despite numerous challenges on the domestic and international front, Modi has managed to lead the country like a statesman.

 

Last, but not the least, leading a country of 1.4 billion people in a democratic set up is something unique and distinct where Modi has no rivals or competitors.

 

No wonder, Modi is the most popular global leader with a 75 per cent approval rating with support, both, at home and abroad.