There is a famous Eminem quote” Opportunity comes once in a life time” which may not always be true . However one cannot ignore it. The election of Lok sabha 2024 has given an opportunity to opposition as well as the coalition partners of BJP. If they fail to utilize it there may not be another time for them . BJP has got only 240 seats and it fought the election on Modi guaranty and anti Muslim rhetoric. The result has clearly given mandate against it. The coalition partners must keep this mind when joining the government. The way Narendra Modi has hurriedly extracted the letter of support from the coalition partners without giving them time to consult their elected members of parliament shows the intention of Modi. He has not reconciled to the defeat given by the electorate. He is still full of arrogance treating junior partners with little respect. It will take time for him to realize that he is not same Modi which he is used to be for last ten years. Keeping in mind his ten years of his misrule and mandate against his policies the coalition partners must decide their role in the government.
Among the NDA allies N Chandra Babu Naidu led Telugu Desam party emerged as the largest contributor of coalition partners having won 16 Lok sabha seats. After the TDP , Nitish Kumar’s Janta Dal united (JDU) has 12 members of parliament. Eknath Shinde’s Shiv sena has 7 MPs. There are other smaller parties that accounts to total 18 seats of MPs. Thus the onus is mainly on Chandra Babu Naidu and Nitish Kumar to control the agenda of the coalition government. Both of them are shrewd politicians and have known Modi style who has employed set of strategies to weaken the coalition partners. If Modi gets a breathing time of about six months, he can make any of his coalition partner redundant. Naidu must be wary of tactic of Modi Shah of ‘use , weaken and throw’ the coalition parties. Thus it is high time to extract as much concessions not in terms of ministries but in terms of policies.
While role of Nitish Kumar and his policies are suspicious. Naidu is the hope of people of India. This election has busted two myths: one that BJP cannot be defeated and second that communalism has penetrated to majority of Hindu community. The secular people have heaved a sigh of relief from this result . Naidu must realize that people of India are looking towards him in this hour of change and he must not disappoint them. Naidu has majority of his own party in Andhra Pradesh and does not depend on BJP to form government. He has emerged as strong leader in his state. The BJP cannot destabilize his government in Andhra. This facility is not available to Nitish babu. Ahead of the NDA MP’s meeting in parliament’s central Hall , Naidu has called a meeting of his newly elected MPs On June7,2024. Normally the party MPs toe the line of their leader. The onus is therefore on Naidu.
What people have mandated in this election is freedom . Freedom of voicing concern and agitation if required against the wrong policies of the government. For last 10 years voice against the policies of government was misconstrued as against the country. There was overdose of nationalism and Modi was projected as greatest national hero . Unfortunately the majoritarium was the rule of law. Minorities space was shrinked to almost zero . No party was willing to take side of Muslims and other minorities for atrocities perpetrated over them by BJP goons for fear of charge of appeasement by BJP. Blatant misuse of CBI, Ed , police and IT against opposition parties was the order of the day. There was fear all around and people were not able to articulate their feelings openly. The education system was completely overhauled to present a particular culture. Scientific thoughts were ignored and ancient Hindu culture was given precedence. The appointments in universities specially the heads of institution were made from RSS background. In parliament the speaker and chairman were not allowing any discussion which was against the failure of government.
It is against this background that the new government is being formed. In order to avoid these things to happen again, the TDP must ask for the speaker post. This is extremely important otherwise any party will be have their member reduced by inducement and the speaker will allow it. The other ministry is ministry of education which must not remain with BJP. The home ministry will be difficult to get therefore a change of minister is must.
If these precautions are not taken, there will be nothing to rejoice for a common man who voted so wholeheartedly against the BJP and Modi.
Mukhtar Ahmad is former professor of electrical engineering Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh.
