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Which makes Tuesday's election verdict, unsuspected by most people who aren't Yogendra Yadav, not just a vindication of the healthy existence of more than one kind of groupthink, but also of the fact that some information — in this case, presence of a spirited opposition to Narendra Modi Inc — can, indeed, exist under the radar before surfacing as an OMG surprise.
That Congress, aided and abetted by anti-BJP fellow travellers — calling them allies would be presumptuous — like Samajwadi Party (37 seats), Trinamool Congress (29) and DMK (22), would notch up 99 seats to make its presence seriously felt in the 18th Lok Sabha, was information that few people had inkling of prior to Tuesday's results.
But after a decade, India has a coalition government, a discomforting novelty for any messianic dispensation. And, more importantly, India has a de facto national opposition after the notion of national opposition was fashionably going out of style. This is good for democracy that thinks beyond numbers and cult appeal.
We, along with Modi, are entering uncharted waters now. Uncharted not for India, of course — which has had plenty of trysts with coalition governments since the time pre-millennials can remember — but for the PM on his third gig unfamiliar with power-sharing, and for us, not knowing how
