New Delhi: On June 10, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who first took oath of office on May 26, 2014, will complete 4,399 consecutive days in office, surpassing India’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru’s record of 4,398 days and becoming the country’s longest-serving elected Prime Minister.
Some of the toughest decisions among several changes in terms of policy taken by the Modi government were in the realm of national security. Under its watch, home-grown terror groups such as the Indian Mujahideen were dismantled. With the threat from homegrown terror largely eliminated, the focus shifted to Jammu and Kashmir.
During the initial days in office, PM Modi held a series of meetings with top national security officials and emphasised giving security forces operational freedom. The initial focus was on separatists and the Jammu and Kashmir-based terror group Hizbul Mujahideen. As part of the crackdown on separatists in J&K, the agencies traced financial networks and found that funds had been flowing for years through Pakistan-backed channels. Investigators found that while 20 to 30 per cent of the money was used to fuel violence in Kashmir, the rest of the amount had allegedly gone into their pockets.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) exposed financial networks that revealed a significant portion of the funds was being used to support the separatists’ lavish lifestyles. The probe proved crucial and, as funding channels dried up, separatism in J&K died a gradual death.
At the same time, Indian security forces drew up lists of top terrorist commanders. Burhan Wani had emerged as a poster boy for terrorism, and under his influence, the Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) stepped up recruitment. His death in an encounter triggered a series of operations that led to the elimination of several top terrorist commanders, leaving the outfit largely dysfunctional. While going on the offensive against terrorists and separatists, the Modi government also undertook several programmes to reach out to the people.
Another key milestone was the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, which brought Jammu and Kashmir fully under the ambit of the Indian Constitution. Following the move, central laws, including criminal laws applicable across the rest of India, were extended to the Union Territory. While the decision initially triggered protests, the gradual weakening of terror networks helped improve the security situation over time. This, in turn, boosted tourism and provided much-needed economic relief to the people, who had long borne the brunt of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism.
On September 18, 2016, four heavily armed terrorists attacked an Army brigade headquarters in J&K’s Uri, killing 19 soldiers. The Modi government responded swiftly. Within 11 days, on September 29, teams from the Indian Army’s Para (Special Forces) crossed the Line of Control (LoC) into Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and targeted multiple terror launch pads. Seven launch pads were destroyed, and around 40 terrorists were killed in the operation, which came to be known as the Uri Surgical Strikes.
Another major challenge confronted the Modi government when a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) suicide bomber carried out an attack in Pulwama on February 14, 2019, leading to the martyrdom of 40 CRPF personnel. The audacious attack shocked the nation and triggered widespread outrage. The government responded firmly by authorising an aerial strike on a Jaish training facility in Balakot, destroying the camp in the operation.
“The Modi government’s actions have been decisive. But the government also took care to ensure that such actions do not escalate into a full-blown war with Pakistan,” an official said.
As tourism began to boom in the Valley, Pakistan tested India’s patience again on April 22, 2025. Heavily armed terrorists of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) / The Resistance Front stormed the Baisaran Valley meadow in Pahalgam and killed 26 innocent tourists from different parts of the country. Each of these men was killed in front of their family members. What made the attack even more horrific was that, before shooting the tourists at point-blank range, the terrorists asked them about their religious identity.
An Intelligence Bureau official said the situation was extremely tense in the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack. Public anger was running high, raising concerns about possible communal unrest in several parts of the country. The Prime Minister was under considerable pressure to respond, but officials felt that any action had to be carefully planned, decisive and capable of imposing a high cost on Pakistan.
The first indication that a major response was being prepared came when India announced a shift in its doctrine. The government declared that any future terror attack sponsored by Pakistan would no longer be viewed merely as cross-border terrorism, but as an act of war against India. On the night of May 7-9, 2025, the Indian armed forces launched Operation Sindoor. Using precision-guided missiles, they struck and destroyed nine terror training facilities located in Pakistan and PoK. Among the groups hit hardest were JeM and LeT. The Jaish headquarters in Bahawalpur, which investigators have linked to the planning of the Pulwama attack and several other terror strikes against India, was reduced to rubble.
The next big hit was at Muridke, which houses the primary training facility of the Lashkar. This facility, where terrorists who undertook the Mumbai 26/11 attacks were destroyed.
An official said that while the Modi government has taken several tough decisions to ensure that Jammu and Kashmir remains prosperous and peaceful, Operation Sindoor changed India’s security doctrine. He was under a lot of pressure but displayed immense patience to ensure that the action had to be decisive and should convey a strong message, not just to Pakistan but to the rest of the world, that India would not take things lying down.
“Operation Sindoor not just inflicted damage on Pakistan’s terror infrastructure, but also called out Pakistan’s nuclear bluff,” the official said.
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