At 75, what sets Narendra Modi apart from his predecessors

In the annals of Indian democracy, few figures have cast as long and polarising a shadow as Narendra Modi. As the nation marks a decade under his stewardship – with a third term secured in 2024 – one cannot help but ponder: what sets Narendra Modi apart from his predecessors in the chair of India's prime minister?

From Jawaharlal Nehru's visionary idealism to Indira Gandhi's steely centralism, and even Manmohan Singh's measured technocracy, Modi's tenure feels like a seismic shift. It is a premiership defined not just by policy, but by persona – a high-octane fusion of the vernacular and the visionary that has both propelled India forward and deepened its fault lines.

The charisma of the masses

Modi's ascent was no accident of dynasty or elite grooming; it was a masterclass in mass mobilisation. Picture the tea-seller's son from Gujarat, once a grassroots organiser for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), commanding stadiums filled with lakhs of supporters. His rallies are spectacles of spectacle – laced with folksy anecdotes, digital savvy and an unyielding narrative of self-made triumph.

Nehru inspired through intellect; Atal Bihari Vajpayee through poetic gravitas. But Modi? He has turned the prime ministership into a cult of personality, amplified by his unparalleled social media reach.

On platforms like X (formerly Twitter), he boasts followers in the tens of millions, crafting a direct line to the everyman that predecessors could only dream of. This "cult salvationist" aura, as some observers term it, has redefined electoral politics, making the BJP's machinery secondary to the man himself.

Decisiveness in the face of division

What Bhupendra Chaubey focuses on in the video features above is this: Where others hedged bets amid coalition quagmires, Modi has governed with the audacity of a gambler holding aces. Recall the 2016 demonetisation – a midnight strike against black money that upended the economy overnight – or the 2019 revocation of Article 370, stripping Jammu and Kashmir of its special status.

These were not the incremental tweaks of a PV Narasimha Rao or the consensus-seeking of a Singh; they were bold, unilateral thrusts, enabled by the BJP's outright parliamentary majorities in his first two terms.

Military forays, too – the surgical strikes of 2016, the Balakot airstrike of 2019 and Operation Sindoor this year – project a "strong-willed" resolve absent in the restraint of yesteryears. Critics decry the risks: economic shocks, communal tensions, eroded federalism. Yet, in an era of global flux, Modi's willingness to gamble has injected a dynamism that feels refreshingly – if perilously – un-Indian.

Blending economics with cultural revival

This is another aspect of the prime minister that endears, says Chaubey. Modi's economic blueprint is a paradox of ambition and austerity: a drive for a $5 trillion economy through juggernauts like the Goods and Services Tax (GST), Digital India and "Make in India".

Infrastructure has boomed – think gleaming expressways and UPI's digital revolution – outpacing the welfare-focused incrementalism of UPA-era schemes.

More can be said about the man of the day than what the video presents. What truly distinguishes Modi is the infusion of cultural nationalism into this modernity. The Ram Temple's consecration in Ayodhya, yoga's global evangelism, and a subtle "decolonisation" of curricula evoke a Hindu-centric renaissance that Nehru's secularism actively suppressed.

Vajpayee flirted with such symbolism—of course, the BJP did not have the kind of numbers in the Lok Sabha (182) back then that the party led by Modi does (282 in 2014, 303 in 2019 and 240 in 2024)—but Modi has mainstreamed it, appealing to the Hindu majority while navigating, often controversially, minority fault lines. It is development not as cold ledger, but as a reclamation of heritage.

Nevertheless, there is a small but growing section of Hindus, not taken seriously so far, who are critical of the way the prime minister handles Hindu interests. They are peeved with the state control of temples (the only places of worship under government), no concern for several anti-Hindu verdicts by the Supreme Court, virtual banishing of spokesperson Nupur Sharma for merely citing a Hadith-backed biographical truth about Islam's prophet Muhammad, failure to protect Kamlesh Tiwari and Kanhaiya Lal, no justice for the sadhus lynched in Palghar, making Hindu rituals look cheap with plaster of Paris-made idols, unaesthetic corridors and laser shows, etc.

From chaiwala to statesman: the outsider's edge

Modi's backstory is the stuff of Bollywood underdogs: born in 1950 to a modest family in Vadnagar, Gujarat, he eschewed the silver spoons of the Gandhi-Nehru clan or the ivory towers of Oxford alumni like Singh.

As a backward-caste (OBC) leader without dynastic baggage, he embodies an ascetic ethos – residing in the prime minister's bungalow sans family, a "loner" devoted to national service. This humility resonates in a land of staggering diversity, humanising the office in ways that eluded the more patrician profiles of old.

It is no small irony that the man once shunned by urban elites now personifies India's aspirational core.

A bolder footprint on the world stage

Globally, Modi has traded Nehru's non-aligned reticence for proactive swagger. His "hugs diplomacy" – embracing leaders from Washington to Tel Aviv – has burnished India's image as a counterweight to China.

The 2023 G20 presidency, vaccine diplomacy amid Covid-19, and a revived Quadrilateral Security Dialogue build on Vajpayee's nuclear legacies, but with a personal imprimatur honed during his Gujarat chief ministership.

Ties with the US, Israel and Gulf states have deepened, even as neighbourhood frictions simmer. In Modi's hands, India is no longer just emerging; it is asserting.

Modi's premiership, then, is a high-wire act of ideology and impulse – accelerating India's ascent while testing its democratic sinews. As coalition dynamics loom larger post-2024, one wonders if this era of personalised power endures or evolves.

For now, it has indelibly recast the prime minister's chair: more centralised, more visible, more vernacular. In a world craving strongmen, Modi delivers – but at what cost to the pluralist soul Nehru once enshrined? The verdict, as ever in democracy, lies with the people.