The Agenda For Team Modi 3.0

After A Keenly-contested Election, As The New Nda Regime Gets Down To The Business Of Governance, The Key Priorities That It Must Keep In Its Sights

- RAJ CHENGAPPA

When Narendra Modi entered the hallowed precincts of South Block on June 10, officials who had worked with him in the Prime Minister's Office lined the corridor and greeted him with applause. Modi walked straight to his spartan corner office and the first document he signed was an order authorising the release of the 17th instalment of PM Kisan Samman Nidhi to distribute Rs 2,000 each to the 93 million farmers in the country, an expense of Rs 20,000 crore for the exchequer. For Modi, this was all familiar territory-he has been here, done this for the past 10 years, over two terms. But there is a clear difference this time. Unlike the previous stints, he is heading a coalition government in his third term, Election 2024 having thrown up a verdict that saw the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) surprisingly falling short of a simple majority of 272 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha. The party won 240 seats, 32 short of the required halfway mark. That has left it dependent on its 24 National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners, who won 53 seats, to run the government.

This brings its own set of compulsions, contradictions and possible conflicts that Modi will have to weather. It will certainly not be smooth sailing given that he has so far headed majority governments, be it his long innings as Gujarat chief minister between 2001 and 2014 or as prime minister from 2014 to 2024. But Modi was quick to dispel the notion that he has no experience in tackling coalition politics. He told close aides that his first major experience of handling ideologically diverse parties was during the Emergency when, as a young RSS pracharak, he coordinated with major Opposition leaders such as Morarji Desai, George Fernandes, Nanaji Deshmukh of the RSS and even Jamaat-e-Islami leaders who were a part of the underground movement to protest its imposition. He reportedly acquitted himself well.