THE sense of exasperation could be sensed easily from the manner in which the I.N.D.I. Alliance constituents started their meeting in New Delhi -- minus key constituents such as the Dravida Munetra Kazagham (DMK) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist). With nearly 10 constituents from the first avtar of I.N.D.I. Alliance (founded in the summer of 2023) missing, the New Delhi meeting can be treated as a launch of I.N.D.I. Alliance 2.0 -- in the aftermath of recent legislative elections in five States -- lacking the original swagger and the ideological conviction that marked the foundation meeting three years ago. The leaders of the Congress party -- by far the biggest constituent in the grouping -- tried to whip up a weak narrative of giving the youth of the country meaningful employment etc, so that the young voters would favour the I.N.D.I. candidates in the forthcoming elections.

 

The stated aim, of course, is to defeat Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi electorally and politically. The arguments were as best tentative and loosely knitted and lacked the punch that is so much needed to fight a political outfit as strong as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). There is every possibility that the so-called roar of the Opposition grouping would end up just as a whimper. Any little boy in the street would assert that removing Mr. Narendra Modi as Prime Minister cannot be the aim and purpose of an omnibus grouping as I.N.D.I. Alliance. When the grouping was formalised three years ago, it did create a sense of promise among the electors.

 

That effort -- for whatever was its worth -- did affect the electoral performance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (whose seat-tally dropped from a healthy majority of 303 seats to just 240 in 2024). But so philosophically bereft has the I.N.D.I. Alliance leadership been that it could not extract a desirable advantage from the cornering of the Prime Minister. The BJP consolidated itself immediately and derived greater advantage from elections, a feat that the Opposition could never make possible on the ground of reality. In the near future as well, such a chance of the Opposition having an upper hand in the country, does not seem to be possible. The reasons can be many for such a state of affairs in domestic politics. The petering away of the grouping right since its inception acted against its political interest. Some marginal gains notwithstanding, the grouping did not register any scintillating electoral victory. And, in the aftermath of West Bengal, Keralam and Tamil Nadu legislative elections, the grouping got a terse message from the people -- that politics must be a ‘no-nonsense’ business and defaulting parties must be taught right lessons -- for its mindlessness.

 

Now, as the grouping redefines itself for the tasks ahead, its electoral behaviour would always appear as something non-serious. For, defeating a Prime Minister can never be a collective goal of a grouping grouping whose philosophical commitment has a confused countenance. Now also, the reports about what might have happened behind closed doors do not offer any sincere promise of serious effort to wrest power. In the past three years since its inception, the grouping leadership has indulged more in loose talk than a serious narrative. All that has affected its own electoral prospects. Now also, a similar outcome can be expected. Of course, in 2024, the I.N.D.I. Alliance had pushed the narrative of the Modi Government as anti-Constitution (which had helped it to some measure). This time, too, such a narrative may be put up by the Opposition. However, the NDA and the BJP and the Prime Minister are much more alert and have understood how to counter the Opposition moves -- which was proved beyond doubt in West Bengal. The current I.N.D.I.A. positioning appears to be headed for a more or less similar fate -- against the stronger BJP-led NDA.