Lok Sabha elections results: A win by any margin is just as sweet
democracy! Rarely has an election ended with the losers celebrating more than the winners. The BJP’s claim that it would exceed 400 seats has been exposed as a fairy tale. Voters have sent an unmistakable message that India is not going to become a saffronised fiefdom of the BJP.
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Communal hate speech has not won votes. Dissent and media criticism, muzzled in the last five years, will no longer be easily tamed. It is a victory for all fundamental values of a democracy. Liberal excitement over the BJP’s setbacks must not obscure the bottom line — that Narendra Modi is back in power. When the hurly-burly’s done, what matters is who won, not the margin of victory. But his capacity to shape India’s future stands transformed.
Modi’s authority, once seemingly unchallenged, has crumpled. There is no question of his attempting major changes in the Constitution. The BJP has fallen far short of a majority on its own for the first time in his three attempts. India has returned to the uncertainties and changing loyalties of coalition era. The BJP ultimately scraped through thanks to fair-weather friends like Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu.
Both have ditched it in the past, and they will demand more respect and consultation this time. But there seems no chance that they will ditch the BJP again in the short term. The long run is always fuzzy. Remember the old dictum —
