E-Paper
25 years of Narendra Modi as head of state: From Gujarat to the Centre and the global stage
PM Modi is known to be a workaholic, untiring listener and an astute politician with impeccable timing.
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On October 7, 2026, Prime Minister Narendra Modi completes a quarter of a century as head of a state and country without any break or holiday or idyllic retreat. A tireless leader who started from Gujarat in 2001 and then evolved into a statesman after braving all the elements.
During these years, PM Modi is known to be a workaholic, untiring listener and an astute politician with impeccable timing. It is due to his leadership skills and policy guidelines that Indian women have come to the front, be it leading a pack of fighter jets against the enemy to winning gold medals in international sports events. The world today is in economic and political turmoil but India under Modi is growing at unprecedented 7.8 per cent growth and the country is largely secure from adversaries across the borders and destabilizers who sit across the oceans on both sides. With rapidly expanding highway network, transforming railway, a peaceful Jammu and Kashmir and vanquished Maoists from the resource-rich heartland of the country, an average Indian today is more confident in standing up to his/her western counterparts. Having personally known the PM for the past 25 years, I can recall many anecdotes highlighting his crisis-tackling capabilities and political sagacity but the leader now has moved into a different philosophical plane. He has a direct connection to the Indian street, has cut the Opposition noise and the orchestrated political chaos, and is singularly focused on how to make India self-reliant and complete his 2047 mission of a developed country. This does not mean that he has given up on being the trump card for the BJP in the forthcoming Assembly or General elections but that he is totally committed to his strategic vision for India. And to achieve that he has made multi-pronged moves since 2014 and has already pushed India to the global stage where it is feared by adversaries and grudgingly respected by friends and partners. The first step Narendra Modi took after being sworn in as PM on May 26, 2014 was to make India secure by adopting a 'zero tolerance to terror' strategy. This was a leaf out of his Gujarat days when he unearthed the entire Indian Mujahideen terror network after the 2008 Ahmedabad serial bomb blasts, which were orchestrated by a religious cleric and Islamist from Azamgarh in UP who had weaponized Indian Muslim youth to avenge the 2002 Gujarat riots by targeting Ahmedabad and Surat. One should not forget that the UP State government at that time stayed away from the Azamgarh arrest due to minority vote bank politics, just as Bihar government deliberately looked the other way when it came to arresting top IM terrorist Yasin Bhatkal on the India-Nepal border in August 2013. Before embarking on his 'zero tolerance to terror' policy, PM Modi reached out to the political leadership of terror sponsor Pakistan and went to the extent of flying into Lahore on December 25, 2015 in genuine hope that Islamabad will mend its ways. Another opportunity was given to Pakistan to bring the perpetrators of January 2, 2016 attack on Pathankot air base to book with India sending all the evidence it had garnered. Since Pakistan and its Hindu-hating military refused to mend its ways, India responded with 2016 surgical strikes, 2019 Balakot strikes, and 2025 Op Sindoor to avenge the Uri, Pulwama and Pahalgam terror attacks which were the handiwork of Pakistan-based terror groups. Unlike the previous governments that caved under American pressure after dastardly terror strikes like 26/11, PM Modi retaliated by giving free hand to Indian military and intelligence agencies and giving two hoots to diplomatic advice and international pressure. He went a step further by holding the 1960 Indus Water Treaty in abeyance until Pakistan stops exporting terror to India.
Since the 1980s, the US-UK-Europe axis used pro-Khalistan and Kashmir to browbeat India using human rights as a stick. It became quite evident to PM Modi that India would be blocked by these powers on the global table using both of these West-sponsored projects. Defying all odds, PM Modi demolished article 370 and article 35A on August 5, 2019 and integrated Jammu and Kashmir while making Ladakh a separate Union Territory. Work has now begun on weeding out the pro-Khalistani elements within India and pushing countries like Canada, US, UK and Germany to take action against these criminal elements and ensure that anti-India activity is not allowed in the name of freedom of speech.
After throwing Article 370 into the dustbin, he moved towards eliminating Left Wing Extremism from mineral-rich Central India. The Maoists with their stated objective of overthrowing the democratic Indian regime were spread over 125-126 districts in 2009-2010 and were dominating 100-plus districts in 2019 when PM Modi decided to take them on. Today, the Maoists have been decimated in Central India though their overground supporters are still populating Left-liberal universities and media.
Another step that PM Modi took and has yielded significant results is “Atmanirbhar Bharat” mission to revive the military-industrial complex in India and ensure self-reliance in military hardware by opening this restricted field to the private sector. While Indian exports in the defence sector have grown manifold, missile, aircraft, engines, drones, ships and submarine construction sector have been opened to private players as a result of which India has built significant deterrence capacities against its principal adversaries and beyond.
Apart from securing India and pushing economic growth, PM Modi has culturally rejuvenated the country by going back to its Indus Valley roots and promoting its Buddhist and Jain heritage all over the world. The consecration of Ram Temple at Ayodhya on January 22, 2024 was part of the cultural revival of Hinduism and laying the past dispute to rest through a legitimate judicial route.
By making decolonization of Indian mindset as a stated objected from the ramparts of Red Fort on India’s 75 years of Independence, PM Modi has put Indian cultural values and spirituality, that existed before the conquerors came in, on the fore-front.
Even though PM Modi scores a distinction when it comes to leading from the front and making India into a global player, he is still working to manoeuvre the rigid Indian bureaucracy into faster implementation of his policies. A relic of the British past, Indian bureaucracy survives on “I, me, myself” principle with poor record of integrity and implementation of government policies. While politicians have to give account every five years, the Indian bureaucracy works the files for over 30 years for every individual at the minimum after passing the UPSC exam. The Indian growth graph would have been much better during Modi’s quarter century had the bureaucracy implemented the decisions at the speed at which they were taken.
So the big question is - now that PM Modi has completed his 25 years at pole position, what next? The answer was given to me by a female Cabinet Minister in 2014. She said the Narendra Modi will lead the country till he wants to. No one can remove him politically, she said. And I agree.
