By Justice Markandey Katju
The more I follow the bizarre and mind swirling political developments in India the more I am. convinced that an Alice in Wonderland government is going to come into existence in India, like a Ravan with 10 heads.
Consider the facts.
The BJP has won only 240 seats in the Lok Sabha, 33 seats short of the half way mark of 273:which is needed to form a majority in the House ( the Lok Sabha seats are 545 in total ). This position is very different from the one following the elections of 2019 when the BJP won 303 seats alone, and 353 with its allies ( the NDA )
Thus the BJP can now only form a government with a minority, and therefore with the support of crutches of its allies, Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP, Nitish Kumar’s JDU, and some other small parties. Even if Narendra Modi again becomes the Prime Minister by cobblmg up a coalition, he will only be a shadow, scarecrow, and caricature of the man with a 56” chest ( which will now become a 26 inch chest ) and the ‘Vishwaguru’ which his followers portrayed him to be.
Naidu and Nitish Kumar are reputed past masters in the art of extracting concessions from big alliance partners and blackmail. They will surely demand lucrative portfolios like finance ministry, commerce ministry, etc where they can make a lot of money. They will also demand special status for their states, and that they should have a say in policy-making and legislation
This being the situation, even if Modi again becomes the Prime Minister it will not be the strong Modi, the colossus, juggernaut and Brobdingnagian behemoth, whom we have known so far, a dictator and autocrat, who could do any high-handed act, particularly atrocities against the Muslim minority in India and get away with it with impunity, and no questions asked, but only a weak caricature, lampoon, burlesque, travesty, mimicry and shadow of that former figure.
He will certainly not be allowed to torment Muslims as he did in the last 10 years, firstly by his coalition partners, who do not wish to lose Muslim votes, and also by a resurgent opposition, the INDIA alliance.
And as for Modi's allies, like Oliver Twist in Dickens' novel, they will keep demanding more and more every day from him until one day we may well see Modi banging his head against a wall, or throwing fits.
I submit that Modi will not last as Prime Minister for not more than an year, and that too as largely impotent, due to the irreconciliable contradictions in this unholy alliance, with its partners pulling in different directions and demanding a pound of flesh, and then an age similar to that of the later Mughals will come in India, as described in this article :
(Justice Katju is a retired judge of the Supreme Court. These are his personal views.)
