Seventy-five—and still at the helm! On 17 September 2025, Narendra Damodardas Modi reached a milestone few leaders hit while governing a nation of 1.4+ billion. Tea stall to third term. Provincial organiser to global headliner. How did that arc take shape? Through discipline, narrative control, and a taste for high-stakes calls—then living with the aftermath.
Roots and rise
Vadnagar beginnings, a hands-on apprenticeship
Born 17 September 1950 in Vadnagar (then Bombay State), Modi helped at his father’s tea stall—an origin story retold at rallies and in biopics alike. In youth came volunteer work, overnight trains, booth-level organising. First the lists and loudspeakers; then the stages and spotlights. Lesson learned early: craft the message, own the venue, build the network—patiently.
Gujarat as launchpad
Growth narrative—and a centralised style
Sworn in as Chief Minister in 2001, Modi presided over a 13-year infrastructure sprint: ports, power plants, industrial corridors, expressways, and the investor roadshow branded Vibrant Gujarat (first edition in 2003). Admirers point to highways opened on schedule and factories lighting up ahead of plan; critics, to concentrated authority and sharper social fissures. Two truths, often in tension. Rehearsal for Delhi? Absolutely—same playbook, national scale.
What changed—concretely?
Clearances sped up. Public events were packaged like product launches. “Model state” messaging ran on a loop. Outputs you could see—lane-kilometres added, megawatts commissioned, special investment zones mapped. Meanwhile, debates over who gained most—and who didn’t—never stopped.
National stage: three mandates
2014 and 2019 majorities; 2024—coalition craft
2014 delivered India’s first single-party lower-house majority in three decades; 2019 repeated it. The third oath in June 2024 arrived with a twist: coalition arithmetic. Same prime minister, different tempo. More negotiation on budgets and bills, yet the brand—decisive, tightly choreographed—remained intact. Slowdown or softening of edges? The next budgets will tell.
A historical echo
A rare club: three consecutive terms at the Centre—previously associated with Jawaharlal Nehru. Continuity at the top, but allies now hold levers in committees and cabinet.
Signature decisions—visible, sweeping, disputed
Digital rails and sanitation: tangible, scalable, measurable
- Digital India (from 2015) rode the smartphone wave: national identity rails, real-time payments, and app-based citizen services. On those tracks direct cash transfers, small-merchant QR codes, paperless KYC. Queues shrank. Transfers sped up. New fraud patterns emerged—and had to be countered.
- Swachh Bharat Mission—launched 2 October 2014—dragged toilets, waste, and cleanliness into prime-time politics. Unusual. And effective at changing both incentives and vocabulary.
Market unification—and shock therapy
- GST, live 1 July 2017, replaced a thicket of state levies with one national framework. Teething pains? Plenty. Yet undeniably closer to “one market” than before—ask truckers how many checkpoints vanished.
- Demonetisation, 8 November 2016: a televised shock targeting informality and counterfeit cash. Advocates cite the acceleration of digital payments and formalisation; detractors count output losses and job stress. The ledger remains contested—both sides bring data.
Constitutional pivots and farm policy whiplash
- Article 370 ended in August 2019, removing Jammu & Kashmir’s special status and reorganising administration—historic, polarising, and institutionally durable so far.
- Farm laws (2020) were rolled back after year-long protests—repeal promised 19 November 2021, passed 29 November 2021. Resolve—and recalibration.
Social protection and science as statecraft
- Ayushman Bharat (from 2018) opened hospital insurance to low-income households—less rhetoric, more claim forms.
- Chandrayaan-3 touched down near the lunar south pole on 23 August 2023. Pride moment, yes; also a calling card for India’s space economy.
- Statue of Unity unveiling on 31 October 2018: cultural spectacle braided with politics—stagecraft as persuasion.
Foreign policy: strategic autonomy—with stagecraft
G20 optics, diaspora rallies, many doors kept open
G20 presidency in 2023—and the New Delhi summit on 9–10 September—showcased choreography, consensus drafting, and the admission of the African Union. Abroad, stadium-scale diaspora events (think Houston’s NRG Stadium in September 2019) turned foreign trips into domestic television. The doctrine beneath the lights: work with Washington and Tokyo; keep channels with Moscow; deepen ties across the Gulf and Indo-Pacific. Multi-alignment, Modi-style.
Personal diplomacy
Bilateral summits framed like prime-time set pieces; leader-to-leader calls that land on front pages; an eye for symbols—temple inaugurations, factory floors, defence fly-pasts. Optics? Deliberate. Outcomes? Mixed; trade and tech advance at different speeds than energy and defence.
The persona—discipline as political language
Routine, message, and the “always-on” lens
Early mornings. Yoga. An austere wardrobe. Long stump speeches punctuated by crisp slogans. Mann Ki Baat radio addresses mixing anecdote with agenda. Big nights—Nov 2016, Aug 2019—when the speech becomes the policy. And the image? Tireless. Meticulous. Theatrical.
Two ledgers: applause and apprehension
Admirers say…
Infrastructure at scale; targeted welfare through digital rails; a simplified national tax; a leader who decides—then delivers. “Decisive,” they argue. “Execution first.”
Skeptics counter…
Jobs, prices, institutional independence, press freedom. Risks from over-centralisation and personality-centric governance. Will the 2024 coalition moderate unilateralism—or merely rebrand it? Watch labour, land, agriculture, and federal transfers for clues.
Fast timeline—key dates
Milestones at a glance
- 1950 — Born in Vadnagar.
- 2001–2014 — Chief Minister of Gujarat; Vibrant Gujarat debuts 2003.
- 2014 / 2019 — National election wins; two single-party lower-house majorities.
- 8 Nov 2016 — Demonetisation announced.
- 1 Jul 2017 — GST rollout.
- 2018 — Ayushman Bharat launched; 31 Oct 2018 — Statue of Unity unveiled.
- Aug 2019 — Article 370 abrogated.
- 23 Aug 2023 — Chandrayaan-3 lunar landing.
- 9–10 Sep 2023 — G20 New Delhi summit; African Union admitted.
- 19 & 29 Nov 2021 — Farm laws: repeal promised and passed.
- June 2024 — Sworn in for a third term (NDA coalition).
- 21 Jun (annual) — International Day of Yoga celebrated; first held 2015.
- 17 Sep 2025 — Turns 75.
What 75 signals
Legacy audit—and unfinished business
Digital rails will outlast any cabinet. So will sanitation gains, an industrial push, and a larger diplomatic footprint. Yet the hardest files remain: mass job creation, predictable regulation, and coalition-era consensus on reforms that bite. Fourth act—or succession planning? Expansion—or consolidation? The next two budgets will speak. For now, the brand holds. The system adjusts. The story—still being written.
