Fareed Zakaria on why Narendra Modi could become most important Indian PM since Nehru

In an exclusive conversation with Business Today's Editorial Director Rahul Kanwal, geopolitical expert Fareed Zakaria says Prime Minister Narendra Modi has the chance to leave behind a very powerful legacy and go down as the most important Indian prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru.

"I think it would be hard for him (PM Modi) to overtake Nehru because Nehru was India's first prime minister. And that gives him a kind of unique status as the man who established modern India and particularly modern Indian democracy. But he has the chance to leave a very powerful legacy," Zakaria said. 

Zakaria also noted that PM Modi is in a commanding position ahead of the Lok Sabha elections this year.

"I think he probably is in the most commanding position in all these elections around the world. Why? India is doing well. Some of that is Modi and his policies and you have to give him credit for that. Some of it is 20 years of reforms that have created a certain momentum that is now unstoppable," he said.

According to Zakaria, PM Modi has understood the pulse of a large section of Indians -- the Hindu pride -- that "very few people have in India".

"He (PM Modi) comes from outside the elite. He may be the first real non-elitist Indian prime minister. You think of the Nehru, the Gandhis, Narasimha Rao, even Manmohan Singh, they all by education, if not birth, came out of a certain kind of elite background. He doesn't. There is a sense in which the average person relates to him. And he understands Hindu pride, the ordinary Hindu's pride in a way. I wish he would use it in a more positive way, not to divide people, but to bring everyone up," he said.

"He is able to tap into the pride of a large part of India that felt that, you know, 'we're not Bombaywalas, we're not Delhiwalas, we didn't go to these fancy universities, but our time has come'," he added.