6 min learnJun 14, 2026 06:56 AM IST
First revealed on: Jun 14, 2026 at 06:54 AM IST
Let me start by confessing that I didn’t assume it was an ‘achievement’ for Narendra Modi to have change into the longest serving prime minister in Indian historical past. And I discovered one thing puerile concerning the BJP ‘bhakti’ brigade on social media and in actual life making comparisons with how lengthy Jawaharlal Nehru served and the way in which they debated which 12 months Nehru’s time period ought to be counted from. Why is that this related? Is it simply me or have you ever additionally observed that BJP trolls and Modi’s most ardent followers appear to have an inferiority advanced with regards to Nehru?
There isn’t any purpose for it. Modi’s achievements as Prime Minister have been extraordinary. To not point out that, as your columnist has talked about earlier than, he succeeded in throwing into the rubbish bin of historical past all the English-speaking ruling class that worshipped Nehru. So why go on and on and on a few prime minister who has been useless for greater than sixty years? Let him lastly relaxation in peace.
Now allow us to return to speaking a few prime minister who remains to be alive. Maybe probably the most important of Modi’s achievements is that since he grew to become prime minister, his insurance policies have lifted 250 million folks out of poverty. In Nehru’s case, the unhappy reality is that there have been as many poor Indian folks when he grew to become prime minister as when his lengthy, lengthy rule ended.
There are different issues Modi can effectively be happy with. When he grew to become prime minister, India had solely 93 kilometres of access-controlled expressways; at this time there are 3,052 kilometres of expressways. The nationwide freeway community has grown by greater than 60 per cent and the variety of airports has greater than doubled. The variety of universities went up from 760 to 1,334 and as a substitute of simply seven All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) now we have 23 at this time. Rural Indians now have entry to bogs, home gasoline, financial institution accounts and free rations. Utilities like electrical energy and ingesting water are extra out there than ever earlier than as is the Web.
Whereas I used to be making a listing of those achievements I came across an editorial on this newspaper that jogged my memory of the explanation why regardless of important successes Modi is seen by many in India and in western democracies as an autocrat and not a democrat. The editorial was concerning the Delhi Excessive courtroom’s strictures in opposition to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) within the case that was introduced in opposition to the information portal, NewsClick. The founding editor of this newspaper spent seven months in jail as a result of the ED charged him with non-bailable offences like cash laundering and anti-national actions.
The Delhi Excessive Court docket dismissed these prices and accused the Delhi police of ‘a gross abuse of the method of regulation.’ It stated, ‘Apart from bald assertions of there being a felony conspiracy, there may be not a whisper of any incriminating allegation’. Harsh phrases however hopefully they are going to make the Prime Minister realise that by being allergic to dissenting opinions he’s doing himself a disservice. We within the media ought to be telling him this extra usually however due to what occurs to journalists who dare categorical dissenting opinions, now we have all discovered to tug our punches. Whereas watching the information channels cowl Modi’s large second final week, what struck me was how they fell over themselves as they competed to sing the praises of the Prime Minister. This isn’t good for Indian journalism, however it’s also not good for the person who guides the ship of India in these troubled instances.
It was to the credit score of Modi’s authorities that it didn’t arrest the founding father of the Cockroach Janata Get together when he landed in India regardless of the BJP’s social media trolls having maligned him brutally. It was additionally good that he was allowed to carry a rally in Delhi and extra lately in Pune. He has to this point caught to elevating just one demand, which is for the resignation of the training minister on the legitimate grounds that he failed to forestall yet one more paper from leaking within the NEET examination. Dharmendra Pradhan has not deigned to clarify why there may be such a large number within the very centralised examinations which might be carried out beneath him. And this might be as a result of the disdain for dissenting voices has change into the defining attribute of the Modi authorities.
Dissent is the lifeblood of democracy. When it’s crushed or handled with contempt, the injury performed is incalculable. It doesn’t present itself immediately however slowly and insidiously and in the long run, it harms those that categorical dissenting opinions lower than those that select to not hear them. What occurred to the editor of NewsClick shouldn’t have occurred and shouldn’t occur ever to journalists who take a crucial view of the federal government. The connection between media and authorities in wholesome democracies is essentially adversarial as a result of if we’re on the identical facet, then what’s the level of that fourth pillar of democracy?
Within the twelve years that Modi has been prime minister that fourth pillar has change into weaker than ever earlier than. When the applause and the plaudits die down and the Prime Minister has time to mirror and brood, he would do himself an actual service if he spent a second or two fascinated by why he’s seen as an autocrat and why the democracy watchdogs of the world have demoted India to being an electoral autocracy.
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