Elected in numbers: An inspired Opposition

Modi is still leader of the treasury benches in the Lok Sabha but the electorate has sent him back leashed by the limitation of his numbers and at the mercy of his allies

Sonia Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rahul Gandhi flash the victory sign after Rahul won from Rae Bareli and Wayanad on Tuesday.: PTI picture

Sankarshan Thakur, TT, 05.06.24 : PEOPLE’S POWER: Hubris has a habit of returning to haunt. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who proclaimed himself “not biological” but “sent by God” mid-May, has been found to be a mortal among us, shrinkable at no more than a jab of the finger. Modi’s “400-paar” vanity has been shredded, the NDA lost wind short of 300, the BJP has lost its majority in the Lok Sabha.

Modi is still leader of the treasury benches in the Lok Sabha but the electorate has sent him back leashed by the limitation of his numbers and at the mercy of his allies.

The Indian voter has heaved out a breath; that breath has punctured the pretence of Modi’s invincibility and scattered the ambitions of cultist absolutism. The 2024 verdict has effected corrections on the democracy scale, bringing in a spirited and inspired Opposition which may yet not count itself out of the power stakes in New Delhi.

The Congress, spearhead of the INDIA bloc, has not overruled the possibility of adventurist intervention in the rattled NDA ranks, trying to wean away Modi allies like Chandrababu Naidu of Andhra Pradesh and Nitish Kumar of Bihar, and leaving him even more emaciated.

But Modi, diminished beyond expectation, emerged from daylong silence betraying not a shaken nerve, wearing a brave demeanour instead and brazenly claiming a historic win.

“People have placed their faith in the NDA for a third consecutive time!” he exclaimed on X. “This is a historical (sic) feat in India’s history. I bow to the Janata Janardan for this affection and assure them that we will continue the good work done in the last decade to keep fulfilling the aspirations of the people.”

The Prime Minister arrived at the BJP headquarters in Delhi mid-evening to a surreal, almost farcical, tableau of celebration that must have been curated in the expectation of a huge mandate. Modi, his face frown-ridden, his margin of victory in Varanasi drastically slashed, walked up to the stage, waving to gathered party workers in a hail of rose petals and golden confetti. The tone of the evening beggared the tone of the verdict.

Modi must be acutely aware, though, that his forthcoming stint in power will be unlike any other terms he has held, either as chief minister of Gujarat or as Prime Minister since 2014. Few would dispute that his persona and political mien — unlike the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s — are not tailored to the demands of coalitions and consensus-building. Neither is going to be easy with an Opposition that has rediscovered spirit and heft.

The Opposition waged its campaign pushed to the wall and braving unprecedented odds.

Two chief ministers were arrested as electioneering gathered momentum, the threat of raids or arrest by agencies like the ED and CBI hung over many others in the INDIA ranks.

The Congress’s bank accounts were briefly frozen and IT indemnities slapped on the party, formations like the Shiv Sena and the NCP were splintered and verdicts twisted in smash and grab adventures.

But they stayed the course, determined not to be trapped into the BJP’s discourse, intent on voicing their own concerns — the peril to the Constitution if the BJP was granted its “400-paar” demand, the hollowing out of key institutions and agencies, the fraud pulled off by the now-scrapped electoral bonds scheme, the many concerns over national security including the reverses in eastern Ladakh and the rollout of the Agnipath scheme.

The Prime Minister and his senior colleagues — Union home minister Amit Shah and BJP president J.P. Nadda in the main — lavished disdain upon the Opposition and made arrogant claims of a sweeping victory way ahead of the the pronouncement of the people.

The night the laughably off-the-mark exit polls were broadcast, Modi claimed from his off-shore retreat in Kanyakumari: “I can say with confidence that the people of India have voted in record numbers to elect the NDA government…. They have seen our track record and the manner in which our work has brought about a qualitative change in the lives of the poor, marginalised and downtrodden.”

People in large parts of the nation have rebuffed that claim and posted their rejection. Nowhere as emphatically as in the key heartland state of Uttar Pradesh, land of the Ayodhya temple and chief minister Adityanath’s unabashed majoritarian bulldozer politics.

Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party (SP) scored a spectacular rally in UP and, in league with the Congress, left the BJP licking sore wounds. Akhilesh and wife Dimple won their seats handsomely; the Congress’s Kishori Lal Sharma, a relatively unknown manager of the Gandhi family interests in their pocketborough, drubbed the fancied Smriti Irani, and Rahul Gandhi took Rae Bareli.

But there was a larger message ringing out of UP — that divisive politics predicated on minority bashing doesn’t always pay dividends, especially not in the absence of essential delivery to the people.

As reporters of The Telegraph reported consistently from multiple datelines during the campaign, there was extreme distress and unease on the ground — over unemployment, over prices, over the widening gulf between the rich and the poor, which has become easily visible thanks to communication technology.

In several pockets, such as eastern UP, where Modi himself contests from, the anger was palpable. “Modi ki guarantee” had become a slogan that not only evoked ire on the ground, it became a thing to mock.

As an entrepreneur in Varanasi told me: “How long can one live off lies and promises? How much more of this mandir-masjid must be fed? Okay, forget the Rs 15 lakh in each account, accepted it was a jumla; but what happened to achchhe din? Don’t know what will happen in this election, but things are no longer the same.”

Likewise, a youngster in Gh­azipur close to Varanasi said: “Lagega jhatka, time aagaya vote ka tamacha lagane ka, bhaashan, bhaashan, bhaashan.”

Now we know.