In this 100-day period, the BJP has been feeling the effects of the coalition partners otherwise stalwart in support of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre have been asserting themselves. File | Photo Credit: ANI In the life of a government elected for five years, how significant is a 100-day anniversary? In the case of the Modi 3.0 government, it is as good a time as any to take a look at how Prime Minister Narendra Modi, helming a coalition government without his own party enjoying a majority, has negotiated the growing pains, and what it says about the future. Mr. Modi has faced challenges from within and without. Even before the results of the Lok Sabha election were in, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological mothership of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had made known its displeasure over the way political management was being effected by the BJP.The RSS was not happy with the splitting of political parties, including the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP); the addition to the BJP’s ranks of people previously ideologically anathema to the party, including Ajit Pawar; and the quick progression of new recruits poached from other parties within the BJP when compared to party workers associated with it for a long time.BJP president J.P. Nadda’s statement during an interview that the party was now “saksham” or capable of electioneering without dipping into the RSS’s resources, was also not taken well. The reduced numbers of the BJP therefore gave the RSS the ‘in’ it needed to intervene in the BJP’s organisational structure. It was made very clear that the new president of the BJP since Mr. Nadda was on an extension in the role anyway, was to have an RSS imprint. The RSS had, sources said, wanted the appointment of a working president before its coordination meeting in Palakkad at the end of August, beginning of September, but the BJP managed to postpone that requirement by announcing an election calendar for internal polls, and more importantly, by the return of the RSS’s Ram Madhav as the BJP’s poll in-charge for the crucial election in Jammu and Kashmir.The BJP conceded the re-entry of Mr. Madhav and bought time for the election of a new president, a move that appears to have helped the BJP and the RSS go from a state of bitterness to one of an understanding that it serves the RSS to help the BJP stay in power. Therefore, here at least, the BJP and the PM have demonstrated some dexterity, pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable. In this 100-day period, coalition partners otherwise stalwart in support of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre, have been asserting themselves, and the BJP has been feeling its effects. While appointments as Ministers and members within his PMO were as they were in the Modi 2.0, the heat has been felt in policy and legislation. The government had to refer its first major Bill, the Waqf Amendment Bill, to a Joint Parliamentary Committee, after pressure from its allies, including the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the Janata Dal-United (JD-U), and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) led by Chirag Paswan, who were anxious to assure the Muslim community that their rights would not be infringed upon.The government also had to walk back on lateral entries into senior bureaucracy via the Union Public Service Commission without the benefit of reservations, and be categorical that the Supreme Court’s verdict on sub-categorisation of Scheduled Castes would not include the ‘creamy layer’. These developments would show that the government was a bit wobbly, and despite this being the strongest coalition government in independent India’s history, it was still a coalition. Mr. Modi has, however, been negotiating the boundaries of this coalition as well — a mechanism for all allies to meet once a month has been set up, with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh emerging as a key figure in consensus-building. Also, Mr. Modi’s speech during Independence Day this year touched on a “secular civil code”, a reconfiguration of the Uniform Civil Code, a key ideological touchstone for the BJP, but not so much for its allies. It was a signal to allies that he would not be like the late former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who suspended the three core issues of the Sangh — abrogation of Article 370, construction of a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, and the implementation of a Uniform Civil Code — in favour of an agenda for governance for the NDA. It was also a signal to his own ideological family that he was still holding the ideological line. Overall, the 100-day period has shown that rather than any linear narrative, the experience of this coalition is one of pull and push, with Mr. Modi pushing at the boundaries of what he can get away with. Published – September 18, 2024 07:07 pm IST