(This story originally appeared in on Jan 08, 2015)

NEW DELHI: Narendra Modi-led NDA government has issued eight ordinances in 225 days since assuming office on May 26 — an average one every 28 days — but previous Congress governments have been far from shy of promulgating ordinances, holding a near unassailable record given their long tenures.Modi's "governance through ordinance" model is as good or bad as late Indira Gandhi's who was PM for nearly 16 years or 5,825 days. Indira had the distinction of issuing the highest number of 208 ordinances during her premiership, an average one ordinance every 28 days or same as that of Modi who has been in office for just over seven months.Unlike the Modi government that lacks a majority in Rajya Sabha, earlier Congress regimes did not face such a disadvantage, lending weight to the view that governments have seen ordinances as legitimate Constitutional options.India's first PM Jawaharlal Nehru ruled for a little short of 17 years or 6,126 days and issued as many as 200 ordinances, second only to his daughter. His average was one ordinance every 31 days.If we rank PMs according to the number of ordinances their government issued, the top 4 slots go to Congress for the highest number of ordinances, followed by BJP's Atal Bihari Vajpayee promulgating 58 ordinances and Rajiv Gandhi with 37.Lal Bahadur Shastri brought in only nine ordinances during his 581-day stint as PM, an ordinance every 65 days. Shastri was premier from June 9, 1964 to January 11, 1966. Performance of Manmohan Singh is praiseworthy too as he brought in just 61 ordinances in his ten-year rule -- an ordinance every 60 days.As far as compulsion of bringing in ordinances is concerned, Modi is hampered while both Indira and Nehru had strong majorities for most of their terms in both the Houses of Parliament. During the Emergency between 1975-77, the Indira government issued 51 ordinances.In the last winter session of Parliament, Rajya Sabha was stalled by a united Opposition, resulting in non-passage of key bills in the upper House including those cleared by Lok Sabha such as the Insurance Bill and Coal Mines.In the winter session as compared to LS that worked for 98 per cent of scheduled time, the RS worked only for 59 ordinances .The government later brought in ordinances to start coal auction and allow FDI in insurance. It also brought in an ordinance on land acquisition among others. On Tuesday, the President promulgated the eighth ordinance of Modi government which will merge person of Indian origin (PIO) and overseas citizenship of India schemes and allow PIOs to avail lifetime Indian visa.The worst performers who brought in ordinances at shorter intervals are the Janata governments of HD Deve Gowda and IK Gujral - both had issued one ordinance on an average every 14 days - and Chaudhary Charan Singh on every 24 days.