Mood of the Nation poll: Modi holds steady, Rahul emerges
Only three Indian prime ministers have scaled Mount 3.0—the rarefied pinnacle of a third term in office. The former two, Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi, encountered major turbulence during their third stints and failed to complete their full terms. Nehru erred seriously at the start of his third term when the Indian armed forces suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of China in the 1962 border war. His persona and credibility considerably diminished, Nehru died of a heart attack in 1964, three years before his term was to end. Unlike him, Indira did not win a third consecutive term; she was defeated in the 1977 general election after completing two terms, the second term blackened by her imposition of the Emergency in 1975. However, she stormed back to power in 1980 a...