When India went to sleep on June 3, it was the last night of a decade marked by the “supremo syndrome” — where one leader, his image, the power of his words and his organised following could overshadow the structure of a multi-party parliamentary democracy, thanks to his party’s dominating majority in the Lok Sabha.
When India woke up on June 4, it was a new era. The voices of the 650 million-odd Indian voters had unequivocally rejected the theory that an entire nation could trust just one person, one leader, so much so that no one else mattered.
Now, we are back to a familiar scenario of coalition governments that ran the country during the 1990s and 2000s, where independence was replaced by interdependence, and each party consulted its allies and even the Opposition before taking decisions.
The era of unilateral decision-making featuring sudden, unexpected announcements as a direct address to citizens is gone. Instead, two senior players who are highly skilled at their game — Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and N. Chandrababu Naidu who is soon to take the oath as Andhra Pradesh CM for the fourth time — will bring back the aspect of negotiation — marked heavily by the spirit of give and take — to each decision.
The bulldozer now has brakes. At least, two of them. But perhaps several.
And once a bulldozer has brakes, it becomes just a lawnmower. The change in the impact and intensity of its power will be felt by the two top men in the structure of governance — who will take time to acclimatise to the shift in their status — as the ruling BJP adjusts to its new position of the larger party in a coalition government.
The biggest beneficiaries of this shift will not only be the alliance partners, or the states of Andhra Pradesh and Bihar, eager for long to receive their special category status, but also the Opposition, which has grown stronger, and the various institutions, estates and pillars of democracy — all of which found themselves a shade paler in the era of illumination of the top leader.
One of the hallmarks of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been to take bold decisions and spring them with surprise timing, stunning everybody. This alliance government will remove those fangs of surprise. Ideas and proposals being discussed will get leaked in advance, public debate and even dissent will mark their attendance before the decision is made.
Another feature of the Modi government, total secrecy, will be defenestrated as well. Access to allies and partners will mean everyone can peep in a priori, and join the thinking table. The table of power, its duopoly over, will mean every interest group finding voice and representation. Any major disruption, such as a change in the Constitution, will impact not the future of the country but the longevity and life of the government first.
Thanks to the return of the coalition era, we are already hearing about demands from partners for the post of Lok Sabha Speaker, deputy speaker, and different portfolios. The coalition era, its doubts and uncertainty, is portending a return of affairs human, which is all too human.
Democracy will enjoy its good health, its leisurely stroll in the park, watching dissent shoot up through the fountainhead of liberty, while the damaged statue of the superman will only have birds perched on its shoulders for company, singing woefully of the bygone decade, of a thriving autocracy, and its sudden demise.
