Modi at 75: Service as Spectacle, Policy as Project — A Hard Look at the Legacy in Motion

By Sanjeev Oak

Seventy-five is not just an age; it is an audit. As Narendra Modi marks this milestone, India confronts the full arc of his imprint — a fusion of spectacle and statecraft, ambition and consolidation, growth and gaps — and wonders what legacy will truly endure.

Seventy-five is a number that invites inventory. For Narendra Modi, it arrives at a peculiar inflection: three terms as prime minister, a governing machine that has remade public life and state capacity in unmistakable ways, and a politics that fuses ritualised service with centralised power. This birthday is no private affair. The birthday fortnight is being recast as a nationwide “Sewa Pakhwada” — a stream of public programmes and inaugurations that turn celebration into service and image into policy launchpad.

“Modi’s birthdays are not pauses from politics; they are accelerators of policy — a ritual that turns commemoration into execution.”

The question facing any honest evaluator is not simply whether the theatrics succeed — they do — but whether the underlying machinery of governance they activate will outlast the photo-ops. At 75, Modi’s record is a complex ledger: robust macro growth and higher global heft on one side; institutional centralisation, politicised public discourse and unfinished social deficits on the other. Both are real — and they will determine whether his long project becomes a durable transformation or a brittle accumulation of short-term gains.

When ritual meets rollout

Modi’s practice of marking his birthday through service drives and inaugurations has become a trademark. This year’s birthday window is anchored by a fortnight of welfare and development drives branded as Sewa Pakhwada, with a clutch of launches and events slated across states and ministries. The format is familiar by now: tree plantings, health camps, mass vaccinations in earlier years, and inaugurations of infrastructure and textile parks timed to personal milestones — a choreography that merges the symbolic with the substantive.

“What once were birthday celebrations have become policy carnivals — where symbolism and statecraft cohabit the same stage.”

The logic is twofold. First, it reframes personal celebration as national service, allowing the leader to claim moral authority. Second, it provides a concentrated moment for governments and departments to clear execution backlogs and bundle deliverables into a narrative of results.

For citizens, the effect is immediate and tangible — a health camp, a job fair, a new factory — which is valuable in democracies where voters reward visible outcomes. Yet spectacle can be double-edged. When ceremonial launches substitute for rigorous follow-through, the underlying reforms risk being episodic. The real test is not the ribbon-cutting but the months and years after — whether projects opened on birthdays run efficiently, reach intended beneficiaries, and are insulated from political churn.

Growth with grit — and its faultlines

On the headline macro numbers, India under Modi has often punched above expectation. In the most recent data, the economy expanded briskly in the April–June 2025 quarter, surprising many with a year-on-year growth rate that signalled resilient domestic demand. That dynamism is matched in trade: exports rose strongly in August 2025, with figures showing a notable month-on-month increase and a narrowing merchandise gap.

“Growth has been India’s loudest applause line under Modi — but its quietest faultlines may decide its durability.”

These gains matter: they affect jobs, investor confidence and the state’s ability to invest in public goods. But beneath the averages lie uneven realities. Growth has been skewed toward construction, some capital-intensive manufacturing and services; employment creation — especially in formal, stable jobs — has lagged. Inflation has, at times, been volatile; rural distress and agrarian debt remain stubborn; and inequalities of opportunity — by region, gender and caste — persist.

Modi’s government has answered this with a mix of incentives (PLI schemes to spur manufacturing), big-ticket infrastructure projects (roads, ports, power), and calibrated welfare programmes (direct transfers, subsidised health schemes). The combination has produced results, but the architecture remains work in progress: transforming supply chains, embedding skills training, and creating a robust social floor are all long-term tasks that require persistent institutional capacity beyond episodic launches.

Policy architecture: project governance vs institutional reform

A defining feature of Modi’s governance is the emphasis on projects over processes. PM Gati Shakti, production-linked incentives, mega industrial parks, and concentrated flagship schemes have reoriented statecraft toward targeted outcomes.

“Modi governs through projects; history endures through institutions.”

That model yields clarity — targets, timelines, deliverables. It captures investor attention and can mobilise administrative energy. But projects cannot substitute for institutional reform. Bureaucratic capacity, judicial delays, regulatory unpredictability, and uneven sub-national administrative competence are pathologies that projects can paper over but not cure. Long-term resilience needs stronger local governance, professional civil service cadres, and transparent accountability mechanisms.

There is another tension: the focus on headline metrics — kilometre stones of road built, factories opened, schemes launched — sometimes crowds out harder efforts at improving governance quality: timely grievance redressal, strengthening local health systems, or devolution of finance to municipalities. A leadership that excels at delivering big projects must also steward the invisible scaffolding that sustains them.

The politics of consolidation

Modi’s era has witnessed an unprecedented consolidation of political power and narrative control. The BJP’s electoral dominance at the national level and in many states has reshaped political competition; the party’s messaging ecosystem is highly disciplined and digitally savvy.

“Consolidation brings clarity — but democracy needs cacophony.”

For supporters, this translates into stability and decisive governance. For critics, it erodes the pluralism of public debate and shrinks the space for dissent. Institutional independence — of the judiciary, regulatory bodies and investigative agencies — is not merely procedural nicety; it is the substrate of credible policymaking and investor trust. Any perception that institutions are instruments of majoritarian politics undermines the long-term legitimacy of reforms.

At 75, the central question for Modi and his party is whether consolidation will be used to deepen institutions and broaden participation, or to shorten political horizons for immediate control.

Foreign policy and global India

Modi’s diplomacy has been assertive and personalised. The Global South outreach, neighbourhood-first initiatives, and a calibrated strategic balance between great powers have raised India’s profile.

“Modi has moved India from being a rule-taker to a rule-shaper — but shapers must stay nimble.”

India’s posture of strategic autonomy — deepening ties with the U.S. while maintaining relations with Russia and engaging China — is playing out in real time. The foreign policy dimension of economic policy has become central as India pursues supply-chain realignments and seeks strategic investments.

The flip side is the geopolitical tightrope: balancing economic partnerships with strategic imperatives, managing trade frictions that can quickly translate into domestic pain, and ensuring energy and food security in a volatile global environment. The Modi government has shown tactical dexterity but not always strategic resolution — the next decade will demand both.

Legacy questions: institutions, equity, climate

If Modi’s lifetime achievement were to be assessed a decade from now, three questions will loom large.

“The durability of Modi’s legacy will be measured less in kilometres of highway than in the quality of institutions.”

First, has India built resilient institutions? Projects are necessary; institutions are indispensable. Second, has growth been equitable — spreading not just GDP points but durable opportunities across districts, genders and castes? Third, has India put climate at the centre of its developmental fabric — reconciling rapid growth with the imperatives of water, land and carbon constraints?

Answering “yes” to these will require policy courage that sometimes contradicts short electoral cycles: deep fiscal investments in health and education, wholesale decentralisation of public finance, legal and regulatory reforms that make property and land markets transparent, and an urgent national strategy on water and climate resilience.

The man and the moment

Modi’s personal arc — from a small town in Gujarat to the national podium — is inseparable from his political brand: discipline, visible results, and a rhetoric of service and sacrifice. That brand has been spectacularly effective in a country impatient for infrastructure and dignity.

“Leadership is the art of making yourself dispensable — not by being absent, but by ensuring the state can progress without your perpetual presence.”

Yet leadership is also about leaving systems that survive one leader’s charisma. A legacy that tilts too heavily on personal mobilisation risks being brittle. The more Modi converts programmes into statutory, depoliticised institutions with transparent metrics and accountable management, the more his impact will outlast him.

A legacy still being built

As Narendra Modi turns 75, the temptation is to declare verdicts. But his project is still unfolding. The paradox of Modi is that his greatest strength — relentless personal drive — must now yield to something rarer and harder: building a system that does not need him to work.

“Modi has shown he can command the state; history will ask if he can let it stand on its own.”