• Urban legend has it that an employee bragged "not even God himself could sink this ship" when the Titanic was launched in 1912.

• Winston Churchill re-ignited hope in his people with his Their Finest Hour speech during the Second World War, declaring: "If the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour'."

• Mercifully, India and the world will not have to wait for a thousand years but only 50 years. Come 2069, India and the world will know whether this Sunday witnessed the finest hour of Messrs Narendra Modi and Amit Shah when the BJP chief prophesied the ship that they steer is unsinkable for another half a century.

New Delhi: The Narendra Modi-Amit Shah duopoly was on full display on the concluding day of the BJP national executive meeting, with the twosome appearing to be obsessed with targeting Opposition unity in spite of belittling it and conjuring up an atmosphere of invincibility that would last no less than 50 years.

Prime Minister Modi claimed in his valedictory address on Sunday that his victory in 2019 was guaranteed because the Opposition lacked a "leader" and an "ideology" and was in the grip of "corrupt intentions".

Shah soared higher and declared that nobody could remove the party from power for 50 years after winning the 2019 elections.

Others listened obediently, clapped and dispersed.

"I don't see any challenge (in 2019).... The mahagathbandhan (the grand alliance of Opposition parties) doesn't have a leader; its ideology is unclear and its intentions are corrupt," law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad quoted the Prime Minister as having told the meeting.

Shah, speaking just before Modi, had predicted: "We will win 2019 and after that for 50 years, nobody can displace us. I am saying this not out of arrogance but based on our performance."

At the two-day meeting, little attention had been paid to politically active issues like the rising fuel prices, the upper caste agitation against the SC/ST atrocities law, allegations of wrongdoing in the Rafale jet deal and the Kashmir dispute, or to how to counter them.

On Saturday, the BJP had abruptly ended a media conference by defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman when she was asked about the fuel prices. On Sunday, Prasad did not run away but said other ministers had spoken on the issue.

Earlier, minister Prakash Javadekar, asked about the fuel price rise, had slammed the previous Congress-led government. "The rate of inflation during UPA was 10 per cent while now it is less than 5 per cent," he said.

On the upper caste protests, Prasad said the Modi government was "inclusive" and committed to protecting the interests of all sections.

The two-day meeting focused on discrediting the Opposition, which prompted many to detect signs of jitters, wondering why the Modi-Shah duo were obsessed with attacking the Opposition when they did not see any challenge.

Fixated on the Opposition,# Modi said: "Leaders who can't see eye to eye, are ideologically different and can't tolerate each other have been compelled to come together. This is the biggest vindication of our success.... Many consider the Congress a burden. Many within the Congress too are not ready to accept the leadership of the Congress."

Revealing the basis of his overconfidence, Shah, like a corporate manager making a boardroom presentation, listed the mathematics of poll victory. He told the party it had a "corpus of 9 crore party members", referring to the BJP's 9-crore membership. Shah said the party had complete data on these 9 crore members, including their Aadhaar and phone numbers.

He told party leaders that with this "corpus" of 9 crore members, they would be reaching out to 22 crore families who have benefited from the Modi government's schemes and get them to invest - by voting - in the BJP.

Modi told the party how the Gujarat model could be replicated in the country for continuity in power. "Gujarat was a Congress bastion. We have been in power in the state for 32 years," he said.

The Prime Minister said the party continued to retain power in Gujarat because the BJP was not arrogant.

Modi said "48 years of one family rule will be judged with our performance of 48 months".

A political resolution adopted at the meeting not only eulogised Modi but also addressed his admiration for alliteration, describing him as a leader who has "vision, passion and imagination".