In the absence of the compulsion of “Common Minimum Programme” and striking a developed modest tone, the new coalition Government under the leadership of Shri Narendra Modi will be strong enough to steer the reforms, continuing the firm national security regime and addressing the core BJP issues including “Modi ki Guarantee”. The earlier slogan of “coalition Dharma” in 1990’s is hopefully transforming into Bharat Dharma, which all alliance partners have to adhere to. It will not be a challenge for leadership but just an extra task to deal effectively with aspirations of alliance partners and accommodating them under Bharat Dharma.
The coalition, NDA was there in 2014 and 2019 and it is going to be continued in 2024 with little variations in its composition and power sharing. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the first Indian leader to win a third straight term after Jawaharlal Nehru, took an oath on June 9 with 72 Ministers. His core team and members of Cabinet Committee on Security are the same, no impact of coalition mandate on shaping the new formation of governance. It also indicates that the core policies and the focus related to financial discipline, foreign policy and national security will be continued as it was carried out during the last ten years. The new facelift of the Council of Ministers is to represent all major areas and demography of the country, giving good representation to women, tribes and Scheduled Castes. The focus on South is visible in formation of Ministries in the third term as there are 13 Ministers belonging to South India.
After Rajiv Gandhi assassination in May, 1991, Congress party secured only 232 seats but added 12 seats more in the delayed election in Punjab, which were held in February. With a total of 244 seats, PV Narasimha Rao as a Prime Minister started a coalition Government and it was marked by significant measures that opened India to global markets, fostering a new era of economic development. After 1996 and 1998 experiments, BJP formed a viable coalition Government under the leadership of Vajpayeeji in 1999 that ushered in successful second generation economic reforms, which were more swift
and faster than first generation reforms. It is well known that first was crisis driven and second was consensus driven but in both cases, the bold or strong decisions were taken in the interest of the country. In both the coalitions, the common factor was the intent and integrity of the leadership.
ADDRESSING CORE ISSUES
Again with good intent and a high level of integrity, one leader is going to lead the coalition. The precedents indicate that this Government will also take all sorts of strong decisions which are necessary for the country. Again the possible challenges like dealing with China and aspirations of POK people to resolve their plight under Pakistan may be in front of Modiji at international level and at the domestic side, core issues on which BJP got 240 seats need to be addressed under the coalition. SP (37 MPs), Congress (99 MPs), TMC (29 MPs) will be vocal to disturb the core issues of BJP and some of the popular ongoing schemes. They may raise vehemently the issue of caste census and try to stop anti-corruption drives by Government agencies. However, with a modest tone and strict approach towards national interest, Modiji is capable of dealing with such aberrations.
It is alleged that this Government has reduced the mandate and again the same people are raising the issue that there is no Minister from a minority community, Muslims. There are Ministers from minorities like Shri Kiran Rijiju, who is also in charge of Minority Affairs, but naysayers are only worried about that minority which is majority among minority. If the mandate is so reduced and not supported by some of the sections, it is clear that in democratic system, the Opposition can’t be represented in the elected formation of the Government. Further, this is also a record that Shri S Jaishankar is the first Foreign Minister who is continuing his second term. Similarly with Shri Nitin Gadkari who has become Road and Transport Minister for the third consecutive term. BJP President, Shri JP Nadda, has now become Health Minister and again the crucial railway new works including bullet trains are assigned to Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw.
There are seven former Chief Ministers in the new third term of the Modi Government. Calm and soft spoken leader, Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan, will take care of Agriculture and Shri Manohar Lal Khattar will handle two key Ministries, Power and Housing and Urban Affairs. One more former Chief Minister and SC community leader from Bihar, Shri Jitan Ram Manjhi was given the charge of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and HD Kumaraswamy has become the Minister of Heavy Industries and Minister of Steel. There should be a special mention of Kerala which is now having good representation in the new Modi Government. Adv. George Kurian, who has been associated with BJP since 1980, and Suresh Gopi, elected from Thrissur, have been appointed as Ministers of State. From Tamil Nadu, in addition to Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar, L Murugan has also been inducted as Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs. Overall, it is a balanced new Council of Ministers representing everything that can be expected, except accommodating the wishes of Oppositions.
Under the coalition Government, Prime Minister has promised a transformative next five years and he stated addressing the alliance partners, “Together, we have to take the country forward. What we have done in the last 10 years is only a preview, a trailer.” In the last ten years, India has achieved many strides and under the leadership of Modiji, the country has become the world’s fastest growing major economy. It is a firm resolve of his leadership to make India the world’s third largest economy in this term. For that purpose, this coalition Government will continue the course correction and adopt next round of reforms for industrial manufacturing,infrastructure, digitisation, regional trade, supply chain agreements, and so on. No alliance partners will object to anything to improve the enablers of manufacturing because this is a need of the country to meet the challenges of employment. In other words, Aatmanirbhar Bharat including production-linked incentives (PLI) schemes will be continued with much more focus as major alliance partners like TDP and JD(U) will not have any obvious reason to be apprehensive about these things.
On national security and foreign policy, there has been broadly a continuity and consensus across all the parties. Still some Opposition parties are raising some issues on these in public just to get attention. India as the ‘Voice of the Global South’ with the Vishwa Bandhu approach is now more engaged at the international level. This level of engagement with clearly shown intention of protecting its interest on trade and security will not have any scope to be compromised because these all are leadership driven initiatives. And India has the same leadership that is Narendra Modi.
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