As Opposition Pipedreams About Coalition, Modi Says Stable Govt Firewalled India

Efforts to unite Opposition parties ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha elections may still be at a nascent stage. But then PM Narendra Modi is not the one to take solace from the fact that 15 Opposition parties of the 23 political parties had stayed away from the closing event of Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in Srinagar January 30. Or is he willing to take comfort from the fact that Telangana CM KCR’s Bharatiya Rashtriya Samiti efforts were restricted to inviting just four political parties in Khammam town  on January 18. That is why it was significant that President Droupadi Murmu’s first address to the joint session of the Parliament on January 31 had a message. It focussed on the kind of decisive mandate Modi government had received in May 2019 and how such a mandate had helped the country cope with many adverse situations in the last few years.  “I express my gratitude to the people of the country for electing a stable government for two consecutive terms… From surgical strike to a firm crackdown on terrorism, from a befitting response to every misadventure from LoC to LAC, from abrogation of Article 370 to Triple Talaq, my government has been recognized as a decisive government…India is in a much better position than the rest of the world due to the decisions taken by my government in the national interest.”