oppn parties The Challenges Ahead For NDA 3.0 As Modi Takes Oath Today

News Snippets

  • Supreme Court questions the continuing relevance of two-child norms. The Court observed that falling fertility rates have weakened the population-control rationale behind laws disqualifying people with more than two children from contesting local body elections. It referred the issue to a larger Bench for consideration
  • Supreme Court declines to shift Tirupati laddu case outside Andhra Pradesh. The Court rejected a plea seeking transfer of the trial, despite arguments that political statements by Andhra Pradesh's Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister could affect the fairness of proceedings
  • Supreme Court transfers Azam Khan's fresh ED bail plea to Allahabad High Court. The apex court declined to consider the Samajwadi Party leader's bail request in a fresh Enforcement Directorate case and directed that it be listed before a division Bench of the High Court on November 16
  • Two killed in Delhi building collapse; contractor booked. Two bodies were recovered after a building collapsed in Chawri Bazaar. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the contractor had been booked and the concerned junior and assistant engineers suspended
  • Uttar Pradesh voter rolls show a 2.4-crore discrepancy. A difference of approximately 2.4 crore names has been reported between the state's panchayat and rural Assembly voter lists. The Election Commission has ordered the two sets of rolls to be matched
  • Gujarat announces 3% dearness allowance hike. The state government announced a three-percentage-point increase in dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners ahead of Diwali
  • Sensex and Nifty post their strongest single-day gains in months. The Sensex surged 2,008.61 points, or 2.60%, to close at 79,310.01, while the Nifty 50 climbed 576 points, or 2.40%, to 24,536.60. Financial and automobile stocks led the rally, supported by falling crude prices and renewed foreign investor buying
  • Maaya Rajeshwaran reaches WTA-level quarter-final. The 17-year-old Indian defeated Poland's Weronika Falkowska 6-4, 6-3, becoming the first Indian woman since Sania Mirza in 2012 to reach a quarter-final at a WTA Tour-level singles event
  • Tanvi Patri reaches Youth Olympics badminton final. The 15-year-old defeated Japan's Yuzuno Watanabe in the semi-final, assuring India of a medal and becoming the first Indian badminton player to reach the girls' singles final at the Youth Olympics
  • India beat Pakistan 3-2 in SAFF Championship. India defeated Pakistan in a closely contested match, having led 3-0 before conceding two late goals. The victory was reported as a significant result for India's second-string side
  • India beat Japan 4-1 to win a record sixth Asian Champions Trophy. India recovered from an early deficit to defeat Japan in the final at Mohali, extending its record as the tournament's most successful men's team
  • The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission on a petition challenging Section 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which grants the CEC and Election Commissioners protection from legal proceedings for acts performed in their official duties. The petition argues that such blanket immunity could leave citizens without an effective remedy for alleged wrongdoing by the Commission
  • The Supreme Court told voters whose names were deleted from Delhi's draft electoral rolls not to be apprehensive about seeking re-enrolment through Form 6, after the Election Commission assured it that such applicants would not be prosecuted merely because their names had appeared in earlier rolls
  • Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opened the party's campaign for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections with an Insaaf rally in Sangrur, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's home district, accusing the AAP government of failing to control drugs, gangster violence and corruption. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined six commitments, including a drug-free Punjab, protection of farmers, employment for young people and action against corruption
  • Rahul Gandhi accused the AAP government of running Punjab through a remote control from Delhi and questioned Bhagwant Mann's ability to tackle drug abuse, making personal allegations about the Chief Minister's conduct during their time together in Parliament
Stock markets on fire due to US results, Sensex gains 2008 points to reach its highest level in 8 months
oppn parties
The Challenges Ahead For NDA 3.0 As Modi Takes Oath Today

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2024-06-09 01:17:03

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

Narendra Modi will take oath today as Prime Minister for the third time. Sources have reported that 30 ministers will also take oath today, with the TDP getting four berths and the JD(U) 2. For the first time in 10 years, Modi will be heading a NDA government in which the BJP does not have absolute majority in Parliament and is dependent on unreliable allies - mainly Chandrababu Naidu of the TDP and Nitish Kumar of the JD(U). Contrary to all expectations and expert views, the BJP performed badly in its strongholds and in direct fights with the Congress. It failed to secure a majority on its own. Instead of its professed aim of having a 'Congress-mukt Bharat', the party saw its foot print getting reduced in states like UP, Bihar, Haryana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Bengal and the North-East. The gains in Odisha and other states were not enough to take the party beyond the majority mark of 272.

Although Modi has talked of a new spirit of competitive cooperative federalism and sarv dharm sambhav (like the sabka saath, sabka vikas slogan in 2014) and has also warned allies that he is not known to bow down to pressure, it is clear that his wings have been clipped and the dictatorial tendencies, which marked his first two terms, will be less visible now as the opposition is strong and his own government is shaky. The INDIA alliance has said that it will move at the right time (which means it will try to explore government formation with breakaway allies of the NDA) and Mamata Banerjee has warned that governments in the past have fallen in just one day.

Even without speculating on how stable the new government will be, it is clear that Modi will have to tread the path with caution. He will have to press the pause button on the controversial (like UCC) items on the BJP agenda and instead focus on development. He will also have to deal with increasing demands from Naidu and Nitish Kumar as both have hinted they will need special favours for their states Andhra Pradesh and Bihar, respectively. With inflation not going away and job creation not picking up, Modi has a tough task on hand. The bright spots are that the economy is performing well and the monsoon is likely to be normal. Still, it is evident that NDA 3.0 will not have a smooth ride.