Indian prime minister Narendra Modi celebrates his 75th birthday today, an age long regarded as the unwritten cut-off point for political careers within his own Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
While schools and newspapers issued birthday messages for the prime minister and blood drives are due to be held to mark the occasion, among opposition parties and on social media the landmark has posed a question – how old is too old to rule?
The debate around Modi’s age took off in July after comments from an unlikely source – the longtime Modi ally and leader of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Mohan Bhagwat. The RSS is the ideological parent organisation of the BJP, and its rank-and-file members hold considerable sway over the future of the party.
Bhagwat recalled the words of late Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) ideologue Moropant Pingle at a book launch in Nagpur in July, noting that: “When you turn 75, it means you should stop now and make way for others.” He added that Pingle would often joke that being honoured with a shawl at that age was society’s way of signalling it was time to step aside.
The comment, made just two months before both Bhagwat himself and Modi reach that age – on 11 and 17 September respectively – was read as a veiled message to the prime minister.
The milestone has reignited questions about whether Modi, who has benefitted in the past from the removal of senior figures from frontline politics after they hit the age of 75, will now hold himself to the same standard.
The prime minister’s rise was itself shaped by this unwritten rule. In 2013, veteran BJP leader LK Advani was sidelined after Bhagwat told him that the 2009 election was his final chance, wrote Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a journalist and author of Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times, in Frontline magazine.
The path then opened for Modi’s selection as the party’s candidate for prime minister, leading to his 2014 victory.
Opposition parties have seized on the remarks. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge asked: “Now he [Modi] is completing 75 years. When will he move out? That issue is also before us. Will he go? Modi ji ousted all others. He has nothing to do with the country. He is only worried about his chair.”
Another senior Congress party figure, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, called it “dangerous to preach what you don’t practise”, pointing to the BJP’s creation of the Margdarshak Mandal – or “Guidance Board” – to retire party veterans into at the age of 75.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut echoed the sentiment: “Modi forced senior leaders like LK Advani, Jaswant Singh, and Murli Manohar Joshi into retirement post-75. Let’s see if he’ll hold himself to the same standard.”
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The BJP has rejected the notion that it has a fixed retirement age. Union home minister Amit Shah declared last year that “Modi-ji will remain at the helm until 2029”, dismissing any talk of his resignation as “baseless rumours”.
Bhagwat also later clarified that his remarks should not be interpreted as directed at present leaders.
“I never said that I will retire or someone else should retire,” he said. “So this is not for the retirement of anybody or for myself. We are ready to retire anytime in life. And, we are ready to work as long as Sangh (the RSS) wants us to work.”
Author and academic Apoorvanand told The Independent that the so-called rule was never formal in the first place. “There was never a policy like this,” he said. “It was only a convenient way to retire leaders like Advani, to give them a graceful exit. It allowed the party to push them into the background while Modi consolidated power.”
He added that while there is “a lot of noise outside the BJP” about Modi’s age, inside the party “we don’t see any tension, no evidence of rumbling. In fact, we see a renewed attempt by Modi to imprint himself on the life of the nation”.
“The ‘Thank you Modi’ advertisements everywhere are a signal that he is reasserting himself, not retreating,” he said, a reference to advertisements in national dailies celebrating Modi’s 75th birthday.
Asked whether an ageing Modi risks losing his grip on the party or his sway with the RSS grassroots members, Apoorvanand argued that the prime minister’s appeal now rests almost entirely on Hindutva – Hindu nationalism.
“His image as the ‘development man’ has faded. Even his supporters can see the failures of governance. What remains is the unapologetic Hindutva. He continues with his anti- Muslim rhetoric.
“That has not weakened in his core constituency, and he is doubling down on it,” he said referring to Modi’s rallies during the 2024 general election, where he was accused of delivering hate speeches.
Despite periods of tension, Modi and Bhagwat have maintained a five-decade relationship, with Modi once writing glowingly about the RSS chief’s father in his book Jyotipunj. Their shared history is in part why many observers feel Bhagwat’s retirement comments have been overblown.
In BJP-controlled states, Modi-mania is expected to be on full display on Wednesday. In Delhi, Modi’s right-hand-man Shah will inaugurate new hospitals, 150 dialysis centres and Ayushman Arogya Mandirs (government health centres), while chief minister Rekha Gupta and her cabinet will join celebrations at India Gate, where a blood donation camp and exhibition are planned under the banner “Thank You Modi-ji”.
The Delhi government has said it aims to collect 1,000 units of blood. But in Gujarat, Modi’s home state, officials have said they want to collect a staggering 75,000 units, setting up 330 donation camps across the state.
Delhi Assembly speaker Vijendra Gupta announced that the state assembly premises will be hosting a special exhibition entitled “Know Your Prime Minister” to mark the occasion. Commencing on Wednesday, it will remain open until 2 October, the birthday of “father of the nation”, Mahatma Gandhi.
A book gallery dedicated to Modi will also be inaugurated at the Assembly Library in the capital, reported the Statesman. It will comprise speeches by the prime minister as well as documents relating to his life’s journey.
Modi himself is expected to mark the day by visiting Bihar, a state that goes to the polls for a hotly-contested election later this year. In past years he has celebrated his birthday by launching flagship development projects, and in 2022 he released eight cheetahs into Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park as part of a controversial conservation project.
Since then, over a dozen more cheetahs were brought in from Africa. With eight of them dying due to a mixture of causes such as kidney failure and mating-related injuries, and new cubs being born, the current number of cheetahs in the Indian project stands at 25. This includes nine adults – six females and three males – and 16 India-born individuals.
