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PM Modi’s biggest achievement is not breaking PM Nehru’s record

The India of the 1950s and 1960s was different from 21st-century India. Therefore, contemporary debates over who performed better are largely dictated by which side of the ideological fence the debater sits.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi completed an uninterrupted stint of 4,399 days in office on Wednesday, overtaking Jawaharlal Nehru’s record of 4,398 consecutive days as India’s first elected PM. Brace yourself for a surfeit of paeans and eulogies in the coming days. Mind you, BJP president Nitin Nabin is likely to announce his new team in the next fortnight. It may coincide with PM Modi carrying out a major Cabinet revamp.

Modi’s latest record is calculated on two parameters — a democratically elected PM and an uninterrupted stint. It counts Nehru’s prime ministership from the first parliamentary election of 1951-52, excluding his initial tenure as a non-elected PM.

BJP leader Ram Madhav highlighted several milestones: “He (Modi) will also have crossed 9,000 days in office as an elected head of government by then, including his 13-year stint as Gujarat CM—overtaking CMs like Pawan Chamling (Sikkim) and Naveen Patnaik. Come October, Modi will complete 25 years in public office.”

Last July, when Modi had surpassed Indira Gandhi’s record of 4,077 consecutive days in office, the BJP listed “record breaking highlights”: first and only prime minister born after India’s Independence; longest-serving PM from a non-Hindi speaking state; and the only leader in India to win six consecutive elections as party leader — three to a state Assembly and three to Parliament.

The list of firsts was long. It grew longer on Wednesday. Politicians love records. See how the Congress high command waited for Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to break Devaraj Urs’ record as the state’s........

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