Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said the country’s neo middle class and middle class would drive the growth of aspirational India, even as he termed “liberation from Congress misrule” as one of the biggest achievements of the BJP-led NDA government during its 12 years in office.Modi was speaking after NDA partners — 72 leaders, including 22 chief ministers from BJP-ruled and coalition-ruled states — passed a resolution hailing him for surpassing Jawaharlal Nehru as India’s longest-serving elected Prime Minister. Modi completed 4,339 days in office on Wednesday.NDA resolution salutes Parkash Singh BadalThe NDA resolution saluted seven leading lights of the coalition, including late AB Vajpayee, SAD patriarch Parkash Singh Badal, Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray, George Fernandes, Sikandar Bakth, besides LK Advani and MM Joshi. The resolution was a message to SAD and Shiv Sena-UBT which broke away from the NDA.Dedicating the milestone to the people and the NDA, the Prime Minister said, “A major success of the NDA’s 12 years is that the country has been liberated from the grip of the Congress, which had pushed it into the abyss of helplessness, misery and inferiority. The country was made to feel as if fast-paced growth was not possible and slow growth was the norm. This slow growth was called the Hindu rate of growth, whereas it should have been called the Congress rate of growth.”The Prime Minister said it was only under the NDA, first led by Atal Behari Vajpayee and later by him, that the country experienced development with speed and scale, reflected in the expansion of airports, roads, railways, digital transactions and pro-poor welfare schemes.In significant remarks, Modi credited the people of India for “showing exceptional wisdom” by repeatedly electing a stable government at the Centre since 2014. “The wisdom of our people is exceptional in that they have elected a stable government successively. The importance of political stability has been established in today’s world marked by chaos and uncertainty,” he said, describing India’s 7.7 per cent growth in FY 2025-26 as remarkable given the global headwinds.Citing the abrogation of Article 370, strikes against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and eradication of Naxalism as transformative decisions, Modi said, “The NDA never hesitated to take bold decisions in the national interest. The speed of such decisions will only intensify in the future.”The Prime Minister said aspirational India was the harbinger of a Viksit Bharat and that the country’s neo middle class and middle class would remain at the centre of policy-making.“We will continue to fulfil the aspirations of the middle class and ensure that the 25 crore people who have come out of poverty never fall back into it. Before 2014, the middle class was the biggest sufferer because of legal hurdles, a complex tax system and poor governance,” Modi said.He added that in the coming decade India would emerge as a global leader in green growth and futuristic technologies, while attaining self-reliance in nuclear energy and other critical sectors.The Prime Minister also took swipes at previous governments, saying that decisions once considered impossible were taken by the NDA under him.“We have restored peace and stability in the Northeast. Operation Sindoor demonstrated India’s capabilities. We have rid the country of the poison of Naxal terror. This is because, for us, the country is bigger than the party. When you work with a nation-first policy, no decision is difficult,” he said.Modi also underlined that India’s future growth would be closely linked to the growth of its states and urged state governments to rise above politics and compete on development indicators.“Let us compete not on politics but on development. Let this become our national culture,” he said, adding that India must be ready to meet global expectations as a reliable supply-chain hub.