US President Donald Trump on Wednesday congratulated India’s ‘longest-serving’ Prime Minister Narendra Modi and called him “strong, healthy, wise man”.
PM Modi on Wednesday became India’s longest-serving prime minister, completing 4,399 consecutive days in office and surpassing the tenure record set by the country’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.
“Congratulations to my friend, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on becoming India’s longest-serving Prime Minister – And a Great One he is,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Quick answers to key questions
Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently became India’s longest-serving prime minister, completing 4,399 consecutive days in office, surpassing the previous record held by Jawaharlal Nehru.
BJP leaders performed special prayers to celebrate PM Modi’s milestone of becoming the longest-serving prime minister, wishing for his long life and good health.
Donald Trump congratulated Narendra Modi on Truth Social, calling him a ‘strong, healthy, wise man’ and expressing confidence in his continued greatness and success.
The Union Cabinet’s resolution praised Modi’s leadership for enhancing national security, empowering marginalized sections, and achieving significant public support, marking his historic 4,399 days in office.
Yes, the Cabinet expressed full confidence that under Modi’s leadership, India will achieve new heights and aims to become a developed nation by 2047.
“He is a strong, healthy, and wise man, and will have many years of Greatness and Success ahead of him,” he added.
BJP leaders perform special prayers for PM Modi
To mark the occasion, BJP leaders across the country, including ministers, MPs and MLAs, organised ‘havan’ ceremonies and offered special prayers for Modi’s long life and good health as he completed 12 years in office and achieved the milestone of becoming India’s longest continuously serving prime minister.
BJP national president Nitin Nabin offered prayers at Delhi’s Jhandewala Temple, joined by Delhi BJP chief Harsh Malhotra, MP Bansuri Swaraj and several other party leaders.
Union ministers J P Nadda, Piyush Goyal, Jitendra Singh and Dharmendra Pradhan also performed religious rituals at various temples in the national capital.
Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta visited the Kishanganj Gaushala in north Delhi and offered prayers at a temple there.
In a post on X, Nabin mentioned, “On the historic occasion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi becoming the longest-serving elected prime minister, I visited the renowned Jhandewalan Devi temple in New Delhi today and performed the ritualistic worship of Goddess Adishakti Maa Bhagwati.”
“On this auspicious occasion, I reverently bowed my head at the feet of the Goddess and prayed for the honorable prime minister’s long life and good health,” he said.
BJP workers in Maharashtra held special prayers at various temples across the state. A grand ‘maha aarti’ was conducted at the 125-year-old Shri Gavdevi Temple in Thane’s Naupada area, where prayers were offered for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s long life, good health, and prosperous future, BJP corporator Sanjay Waghule said.
In Odisha, BJP leaders and workers also performed rituals at several temples to mark the occasion. BJP state president and MP Manmohan Samal offered a ‘dipa’ (lamp) at the Lingaraj Temple in Bhubaneswar and conducted prayers seeking good health and longevity for the prime minister.
PM Modi, Kharge exchange war of words
PM Modi slammed the Congress, saying that the slow economic growth during its rule was misleadingly termed the “Hindu Growth Rate”, while it should actually have been called the “Congress Growth Rate” due to what he described as a lack of governance.
He also said that one of the major achievements of the NDA government since 2014 was freeing the country from the Congress’ “vicious trap”. Modi added that citizens had come to recognise the value of political stability and strong, decisive leadership.
“The nation was conditioned to believe that development in India inevitably moves at a slow pace and rapid growth was simply not possible here. With great cunningness, this sluggish growth was labelled the ‘Hindu Growth Rate’, implying that while the style, responsibility and failure were all the Congress’, the stigma was pinned on the country’s vast Hindu population,” Modi said.
“It should have been named ‘Congress Growth Rate’. This ‘Congress Growth Rate’ was characterised by a complete absence of governance, policy, intent and decisiveness,” the prime minister stated.
He added, “Unfortunately, in 2004, the country was once again caught in a cycle of instability,” he said, referring to the Congress-led UPA rule from 2004-2014.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his remarks against the opposition, saying that “distorting history” cannot alter facts and accusing the NDA government of promoting “event management and manufactured narratives” instead of real achievements
Kharge further alleged that over the past 12 years, the Modi-led government has focused only on slogans and publicity, while leaving the public burdened with rising inflation, unemployment, and corruption.
“India’s longest-serving Prime Minister was Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. He was also the one who served the longest continuously as Prime Minister. Smt. Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister with the second-longest tenure,” Kharge wrote on X.
“Now, the BJP has to invent a new and ridiculous category just to prove who has been the ‘longest-serving Prime Minister continuously since the first general elections of independent India’!” he said.
“Do remind the country of this as well — In whose cabinet was Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel the Deputy Prime Minister? In whose cabinet was Babasaheb Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar the Law Minister? In whose cabinet did Dr Syama Prasad Mukherjee serve as a minister?” Kharge added.
About the Author
Garvit Bhirani
Garvit Bhirani is a journalist based in Gurugram. He is a Deputy Chief Content Producer at LiveMint, where he covers national and international news stories, focusing on accuracy and compelling storytelling for readers.
With a total of six years of experience in journalism, he has previously worked with Vaco Binary Semantics for Google, taking on the role of news curation lead, and reported from the field on health, education, and agriculture stories for 101reporters and News9. He has also served as a content editor for entertainment and news media organisations.
Garvit holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism and mass communication from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University and Gurugram University, respectively. During college days, he joined India’s only non-profit student journalism network, where he anchored daily news updates and produced his own weekly show called ‘Data Fix’.
He was selected for the YES Foundation Media for Social Change Fellowship in Delhi, the Talking Data to the Fourth Pillar residential workshop, and the VOICE Fellowship in Pune.
He holds certificates in COVID-19-verification reporting, data journalism, food & agriculture, tech policy, media literacy and countering misinformation, and tackling election disinformation courses from Thomson Foundation, IndiaSpend, The Dialogue, US Mission in India, and AFP.
He can be reached on LinkedIn or on @garvitbhirani on X
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