Omkar Dattatray
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a daunting and challenging task of governing the country and managing the contradictions arising out of the coalition government. Modi has to balance the interests and issues facing the government. He has to take all the allies together and keep the flock of coalition partners in unison so as to realize the priorities of the coalition government 3.0. The task of governance is this time tough but not insurmountable but it is expected that Modi will remodel himself according to the new circumstances and changing conditions.
Modi has to manage conflicting interests of the alliance partners for realizing the goals of the new government. The task before the new government is herculean and Modi has to ensure coordination and cooperation of all the alliance partners in order to carry the government for meeting the interests of the people.
Since BJP has fallen short of the simple majority and has only secured 240 Lok Sabha seats which are 32 seats less than 272 seats to form the government on its own. Thus BJP and Modi were constrained to seek the support of its pre poll allies to cobble a coalition of NDA government. Modi has particularly to keep his two coalition partners Nitish Kumar of JD[U] and N. Chanderbabu Naidu of TDP who have performed the role of kingmakers happy and contented so that they should not become a headache and problem for the Modi third government.
But the fact is that Nitish Kumar is very uncertain and Chanderbabu Naidu is most undependable and there will always be the chances that they will turn coats and switch sides. But one thing is satisfying that Modi is the master strategist and a hard task master and he has mastered the art of managing coalition governments for the last ten years. However in this third inning of Modi, the conditions and circumstances are altogether different. As in his earlier coalition, Modi had 303 seats with him and he was hardly dependent upon the allies. But presently, Modi has to manage, direct and control a coalition which depends on the pleasure of its two partners who have assembled the necessary majority mark of 272 seats for the government. Modi has to manage a difficult task of keeping the flock of allies together to carry on the work of governance so as to fulfill the aspirations of the people.
Narendra Modi was sworn as the Prime minister for the record third time on Sunday, a rare feat that also came with new challenges as the populist leader was forced to rely on allies to form a government .In the near time, Modi government, may need to spend more, to meet the demands of allies, that helped him secure a majority in parliament, testing the governments purse. Regional parties in Modi’s alliance have already demanded more funds for their states, and federal cabinet positions, during negotiations on forming a new coalition government. Andhra Pradesh state’s Telugu Desam Party, and Bihar’s Janata Dal United ,are also pushing longstanding demands ,to grant special status to their states, which would allow the states to receive more federal development funds on simple terms.
This special status demand by Nitish Kumar to Bihar and such demand by TDP’s Chandrababu Naidu will give birth to Pandora box and more and more states will demand special status which will not be in the interests of Indian federation.
The economy has jumped five places to be the fifth -largest in the world, in the past decade, under Modi’s rule ,and he has said he will lift it to the third position .However ,the country’s per capita income still remains the lowest among G20 nations. “‘Middle class is the driving force of the country,” Modi said at an alliance meeting on Friday.
“‘In the coming days we will work on increasing middle class savings ,improving their quality of life ,and seeing what needs to be changed in our rules to achieve that.” Economists believe that Modi 3.0 will not slow down the reforms and to achieve the goal of Vikshit Bharat by 2047, economic reforms and policy reviews need to be continued across multiple sectors ,including infrastructure, labour ,and manufacturing. After a decade of full majority governance, Modi will now run a coalition government ,with the TDP and JD[U] as key partners .Despite being in coalition ,experts feel that there won’t be much change in new governments economic agenda Modi government should be committed to bold reforms for realizing the objective of developed India by 2047. These reforms are deemed essential to drive economic growth and development in India .”The often repeated target of becoming a developed country by 2047 requires far-reaching reforms in the factor market ,opening up economy and infrastructure development and a thrust towards labour intensive manufacturing to solve the unemployment problem to some extent. PM Modi should not make any compromise on continuance of bold economic reforms with the coalition allies .New government will face real pressure to perform and show results ,says International Crisis Group analyst Praveen Donthi. Unemployment has been one of India’s biggest problems since the pandemic and rising prices also is a challenge to be encountered by Modi dispensation.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has to lead the world’s most populous country for a third straight term, but things could be quite different for him this time. Modi has this time to work in different situation and setting, where he has to adjust himself to the conflicting interests of his allies .His electoral alliance may have come out on top in the weeks long parliamentary polls, but his own BJP fell short of its ambitious targets, forcing Modi into the undesired position of having to rely on coalition partners. This is a reflection of BJP’s failure to address key issues in India ,according to analysts ,who say the new government faces a number of challenges, including spiking unemployment and inflation ,that requires a shift away from ”Hindu nationalist policies ”and more focus on delivery .”There will be real pressure to perform and show results, ”Praveen Donthi ,a senior analyst for India at the International Crisis Group .He said there will now be pressure on the government to” sort of moderate” and” fine-tune ”some of its policies ,stressing the results have shown that” empty rhetoric —communal rhetoric alone won’t work. ””It has to be backed by performance. ”he said Modi has to steer the coalition under tremendous pressure from its allies. Rhetoric aside ,even a prime minister cannot argue against hard data that paints a bleak picture of joblessness and inflation in India and new government has to tackle these problems as the allies will want so to remain in politics and for showing their presence in the new government. The new government will have to address the economic challenges, take care of the unemployment ,because there could still be growth without job creation ,so that is one trap that India will have to avoid .On strategic and geopolitical challenges ,India’s issues have grown manifold due to its strained ties with China. The biggest security and strategic challenge for India right now is China ,relations between the two Asian giants is at their lowest since war of 1962.Modi 3.0 government will be under pressure to break the deadlock and make progress on this front. Another issue for the new government will be to control and contain ethnic violence in Manipur .To cut a long story short it can be argued that Modi’s new coalition government will have to work under the pulls and pressures of its allies and Modi also will have to address a number of issues and the governance this time will not be a cakewalk for Modi.
(The author is a columnist,
social and KP activist).
