When Narendra Modi became India’s Prime Minister…

May 26, 2014 is a day that Narendra Damodardas Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party will not forget in a hurry. On that day the saffron party assumed office at the Centre and was back in power after a decade. And on that day the man who once sold tea at a railway platform became the Prime Minister of the world’s largest democracy.

When the results of the 2014 General Elections were announced on May 16 last year, Modi had tweeted - “India has won”. But then it was more of 'Modi had won'. He had led his party to an unprecedented victory with the BJP winning a comfortable majority on its own and becoming the first non-Congress party since Independence to do so.

There is someone else who will not forget May 26 in a hurry. And that is the Congress party. When Modi unleashed his energetic, whirlwind and unprecedented election campaign, the Congress party and its vice president Rahul Gandhi had a hard time catching up. And though they were more or less mentally prepared to lose the polls, they in all likelihood were not prepared for the humiliating loss that ensued.

The Congress was reduced to 44 seats, their worst-ever performance in the nation’s history. Thus, the man who made it all possible did not only win the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, he won it in style. He not only helped his party get back to power, but also decimated the grand old party and almost made the country ‘Congress mukt’.

Not many will forget the rapturous scenes that followed when Modi landed in the national capital on May 17, 2014, a day after the results were announced. The victory march that began from the airport continued till the party office at 11, Ashoka Road, with Modi enjoying every moment of it. He was the gladiator who had destroyed the Opposition and had come to claim his prize – the prize of becoming the Prime Minister of the world’s largest democracy – inspite of being called ‘divisive’, ‘communal’, ‘Hitler’, ‘butcher’, ‘murderer’ and an ‘impotent’.

Not many will also forget the ‘made for cameras’ moment when he stood on the foot-board of his SUV flashing the ‘V’ sign. Cameras followed him when he addressed the party workers at BJP headquarters and gave a thanksgiving speech at Varanasi. It was as if the media and the nation could not have enough of him.

Apart from the magnitude of the victory, Modi’s ascendancy as India’s PM also made for an amazing cover story. The media played the following facts again and again – How born on September 17, 1950, in a middle-class family in Vadnagar in Gujarat's Mehsana district and running a tea stall with his father and brother, as a teenager, Modi had risen from being an RSS pracharak in his young days, to being the Chief Minister of Gujarat four times in a row and had become the 15th Prime Minister of India.

Moreover, apart from the fact that his elevation to the top post was a reaffirmation of the fact that a person from a humble background can aspire and achieve the unthinkable in a parliamentary democracy, it also signalled that ruling India was not one family’s entitlement.

The media also lapped it up when Modi on May 20, at the cusp of history, in his first address in Parliament, broke down, maybe due to the sheer magnitude of it all. His 30-minute speech after he was formally elected leader of BJP’s parliamentary party was hailed by journalists and experts as ‘outstanding’ wherein he promised to live up to the expectations of the 1.2 billion population of the country.

However, Modi’s countdown began the moment he was administered oath by the President of India to lead the country. He came to power on the plank of development, growth and governance, giving hope for a better tomorrow to the people of India. And now that he has completed one year in office, Modi probably knows that he still has a long way to go. In contrast to Manmohan Singh who was seen by all and sundry as a ‘silent’ and ‘indecisive’ PM, Modi had projected himself as a decisive leader who would be a 24x7 Prime Minister.

One year of Modi government has not been bad, especially when compared to UPA 2. Some good steps have been taken but some still need attention. The intention is there, the perception has been positive but if PM Modi has to come good on the promises that he has made to the people then he has to start walking the talk. The honeymoon period was over long back.

Maybe because of the sheer expectations from Modi, one year seems a long time for the BJP-led NDA government. And more than anyone else it is PM Modi who would be aware of it. He did reiterate at the Mathura rally on May 25 to mark one year of NDA government that he was the ‘pradhan sevak’ of the people and that ‘every moment of his life’ was dedicated to serving the nation. He also kept asking the crowd whether he had kept his word or not and asked them to bless him.

I guess however confident the Prime Minister may appear to be, he is also realizing the hard fact that fulfilling the aspirations and dreams of a billion plus people and being the leader of a huge and diverse country like India is not going to be easy.