Why no opposition will be strong enough for Modi in Lok Sabha

Prime minister-to-be Narendra Modi is in the best possible position he could have imagined himself in when this campaign began a year ago. He has as much space in New Delhi today as he did in Gujarat to operate independently and to stamp himself on India’s destiny. His 282 seats for the Bharatiya Janata Party mean that he’s entirely independent of the allies. The arm-twisting of and helplessness of Manmohan Singh by the Left on US policy, by Mamata Banerjee, the southern parties and by other allies will not be repeated in the Modi government. [caption id=“attachment_1530163” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Narendra Modi at the BJP head quarters in New Delhi. AFP[/caption] More interestingly, the 55 or so seats that the allies bring to the National Democratic Alliance give Modi leverage inside the BJP. He can afford to alienate or push away those elements inimical to him or his policies. There is no threat he faces from inside or outside. That allows him the space to do what he has set out to do. Modi is not in Delhi just to be another prime minister. He doesn’t see himself as a Deve Gowda, an Inder Gujral or even as a Rajiv Gandhi. Though he asked for 10 years of rule last night he certainly doesn’t see himself as a Manmohan Singh. He aims to leave a mark as deep and profound as Nehru’s, though a very different one, of course, given the difference in outlook between the two men. To do what he has set out to, Modi must change the way that India is governed and do miraculous things with the economy. I don’t believe he thinks he can get this done with the likes of those who form the ranks of BJP’s MPs. Outsiders with talent, specialists, favourite bureaucrats: this is the stuff that Modi likes to work with. The numbers in the Lok Sabha will give him the freedom to do much of this innovating. If it succeeds, or is seen as succeeding, he will get increasingly more room. On the political side, it need hardly be said that he will brush aside threats in the BJP like he did in Gujarat. His fantastic victory has already done that. The mumbling congratulations from Advani and Sushma cannot hide the fact that there is only one game in town now. Modi promised a Bharat mukt of the Congress and he has delivered that. In this Lok Sabha there will be no opposition to him, given the deep fragmentation of the other side. Modi’s stress on federalism will ensure that many regional parties will break with the Congress when it tries to wave the tattered and discredited banner of secularism. The Congress took its defeat surprisingly easily. Rahul Gandhi’s phrasing — “Congress performance was pretty bad’ — came from the school of coffee shop banter rather than the vocabulary proper to explaining a national disgrace. His clownish smiling while his mother spoke I shall pass over. The Gandhis will be incapable of opposing Modi and their massacred (the word decimated, meaning the slaughter of one in 10, is wrongly used here) ranks can no longer protect them. As I’ve written before, the Lok Sabha will miss the presence and dynamism of Arvind Kejriwal, whose party threw up another surprise in Punjab. For me, as a Gujarati, the exit of Modi finally from the state is good thing. It will bring relief to a place where finally some healing can happen. Thirteen unbroken years of Modi rule may have been very good for some things, yes, but they have been damaging in others. With a new chief minister and, hopefully, a new style of functioning, Gujarat can move on. Modi said in his speech last night that he would return if Gujaratis called out to him. His biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay read that as a sign that he will rule in proxy over the state. It was a signal to the BJP more than to the audience. Of course it is true, but some things are best not worried over. For now, India awaits its hope. The man who ran a superb campaign, a positive campaign, who demanded our votes bravely on the strength of his character and his performance, has been victorious. All hail the saviour.