The new joke in the corridors of power is that if in the last five years the country suffered because it didn’t have a strong government, the next five years could be worrisome because we don’t have a strong Opposition.
The last time we had a majority government was in 1984 when Rajiv Gandhi was prime minister with a whopping 414 MPs in a 543-member House with the next highest being NT Rama Rao’s Telugu Desam Party with 30 seats. The BJP, in its new avatar, had got just two. Indian politics has changed dramatically in the intervening period, but the lessons of those five years may be useful for both the Narendra Modi government and for the Opposition.
Barring a miracle, at some stage on Friday, Narendra Modi will be poised to fulfil his long-cherished ambition of being the next prime minister. Yes, exit polls have a spotty record in the country, but unless we have all got it horribly wrong, there is no reason to believe that there isn’t a Modi ‘wave’ in large parts of the country, if not a tsunami. When Modi writes his blog and thanks the Indian voter, here are a few more thank you cards he should send out.
