On and around June 9, 2026, a full-page advertisement appeared in several English and Tamil newspapers — and presumably in all Indian newspapers — listing the achievements of the Narendra Modi government during the last 12 years.

Significant milestone

Twelve years is a significant milestone. The Modi government was elected first in 2014, re-elected in 2019, and re-elected in 2024, but with a substantially reduced number. The BJP hailed the tenure of Mr Modi as the longest of any elected Prime Minister. Quite unnecessarily, it compared his tenure with the tenure of Jawaharlal Nehru. Sans comparison, a tenure of 12 years is indeed enviable. Everyone knows that Nehru was the first prime minister of independent India; he won elections in 1952, 1957 and 1962, and he was  prime minister for 17 years. He served as prime minister for the longest number of years, so far.

Every government is entitled to make claims, and a little amount of puffery is tolerated. But the advertisements in question went beyond puffery. The people saw through Mr Modi’s exaggerated claims two years ago, and limited the BJP to 240 seats in the Lok Sabha, denying the party a simple majority in the House. Two years later, the same claims are being made.

Without malice, I wish to take a sample of the claims and show you what they are:

🔴 Government has created 3 crore lakhpati didi

Lakhpati didi, according to the government’s definition, is a female........

© Indian Express