THE myth that you can continue ruling the country by dividing people on religious ground, intimidating and jailing the opposition leaders, capturing all the public institution and centralising power, forcing the media to be a ‘Godi’ instead of an independent one has been busted in the 2024 general elections. The message is clear: do not take people for granted. As against the claim ofÌý ‘Ab ki baar 400 paar’, BJP ended up getting 240, way below the majority of 272. NDA scored 294. BJP on its own cannot form the government.
No one imagined this kind of verdict except a few like Yogendra Yadav and Deepak Sharma, journalist who had a clear prediction that BJP may end up below 250. But it happened. Despite all the effort made by Modi and Shah for a landslide victory for the third time, the people of this country have asserted saying, ‘we are the boss!’
The results again have proved that India continues to be a vibrant democracy.
The coalition era is back now in full swing. With the NDA electing Modi as its leader yesterday, decks are clear for him to be the prime minister for the third time. The swearing ceremony will be on June 8, according to sources. The key coalition partners Chandrababu Naidu of TDP and Nitish Kumar of JDU hold the key to the formation of the government at the centre. It will be seen in coming days how Modi runs the coalition government. Will he run following the ‘Coalition Dharma’ like Atal Bihari Vajpayee did in 1998–2004 or he does in his own way of complete centralisation of power in two persons’ hands. It is understood that Naidu and Kumar seek speaker’s post and some key cabinet berths. Several versions are doing the rounds on the kinds of portfolio both these politicians want. Amidst tough bargaining, it is not clear who is getting what. Both Naidu and Kumar are seasoned politicians. Speaker’s post in their hands is important to make infructuous any attempt by BJP to break their MPs and take to its fold. Home portfolio is important as ED and CBI are under it. Finance portfolio is important to give good package to their states of Andhra Pradesh and Bihar.
With time it will be clear what kind of government takes shape and who calls the shots. But what stands is this term will not be similar to previous two terms of NDA.Ìý
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Countercurrents.org, June 6. Pradeep Baisakh is a senior journalist and author.
