New Delhi, June 10,2026: A fresh political confrontation erupted on Wednesday as the Congress launched a sharp attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the day he surpassed Jawaharlal Nehru to become India’s longest-serving Prime Minister, with senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh accusing the Prime Minister of attempting to erase Nehru’s legacy while presiding over what he termed a “Murder of Democracy” in the country.
In a post on social media platform X, Ramesh highlighted what he described as the transformative achievements of independent India’s first five years under Jawaharlal Nehru’s leadership and contrasted them with the present political climate under the Modi government.
”Jawaharlal Nehru became Prime Minister of India on August 15, 1947, presiding over a stellar Cabinet — the likes of which have rarely been seen in the world. Over the next five years, modern India came into being,” Ramesh said.
The Congress leader listed a series of milestones achieved between 1947 and 1952, including the peaceful integration of more than 560 princely states into the Indian Union, the framing and adoption of the Constitution, the abolition of the zamindari system, the introduction of reservations for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the launch of major irrigation and power projects, and the establishment of India’s scientific and technological infrastructure, including in the field of nuclear energy.
He also underscored India’s emergence as a significant voice in global affairs during the period and recalled the preparation of electoral rolls covering nearly 170 million voters ahead of the country’s first general elections held between October 1951 and February 1952.
Ramesh credited several national leaders alongside Nehru for laying the foundations of modern India. “The 1947-52 record of achievements of India with Nehru as PM and in which stalwarts like Sardar Patel, Dr. Ambedkar, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, C. Rajagopalachari, and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad played such a pivotal role is now sought to be erased by Modi, who has a pathological fixation on Nehru,” he alleged.
Launching a direct attack on the Prime Minister, Ramesh said that while Modi may have crossed a “self-proclaimed and dubiously invented milestone”, he was “a millstone around India’s neck” and accused his government of weakening democratic institutions.
”The very same establishments of democracy — an independent Election Commission and a sacrosanct voter list — are now threatened,” he claimed.
The Congress general secretary also accused the government of undermining scientific temper and weakening educational institutions. Referring to recent controversies surrounding examinations, he said, “Scientific temper has been erased through the destruction of our educational institutions — as exposed most recently by the NEET-CBSE scandals.”
Ramesh further alleged that reservations for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes had been diluted through privatisation and mechanisms such as “Not Found Suitable”.
Drawing an electoral comparison between Nehru and Modi, the Congress leader pointed out that Nehru secured decisive mandates in the 1952, 1957 and 1962 general elections. He argued that the BJP failed to secure an outright majority on its own in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and relied on its National Democratic Alliance partners to form the government.
”Mr. Modi did NOT secure even a simple majority by a considerable margin in 2024 and had to hurriedly convene an NDA meeting, bypassing the BJP Parliamentary Party to anoint himself as PM. 2024 was most certainly not a mandate for Him,” Ramesh said.
The remarks came amid a broader political debate surrounding Prime Minister Modi’s historic tenure milestone, with the BJP celebrating the achievement as a reflection of sustained public trust and leadership continuity, while opposition parties have sought to contrast the government’s record with that of previous administrations, particularly the Nehru era.
