It’s not every day that the otherwise cocksure BJP chief Amit Shah feels the need to do a media outreach in a let-me-set-the-record-straight mood, like he has done the past few days. Not that his charge of ‘unholy alliance’ is going uncontested. Coming into the perception management game late in the day, the usually laidback GOP too is flexing its vocal chords, matching bite for soundbite. The battle is not over, nor can there be a tactical retreat by either side. May 2019 is too close for that. But after a long gap it appears not to be an unequal game, a restoration of balance necessary for the well-being of a democratic polity. The palpable nervousness in the air (which any form of unipolarity evokes in India) has dissipated somewhat, but it can be short-lived.
For the moment, there are indeed two big takeaways from the dramatic turns of the Karnataka polls, one legal, the other political. In this entire tug-of-war, if one entity has won the trust vote, it’s the Supreme Court. From agreeing to sit after midnight to giving sober, nuanced rulings not once but twice, both times in the nick of time, the apex court restored the level playing field and also its own reputation (as a non-partisan umpire). The best part: its crucial caveats were inserted into the frame without hurting constitutional niceties. It took care not to strike down any of the governor’s decisions, neither his swearing-in of B S Yeddyurappa without a letter showing adequate support; nor the appointment of pro-term Speaker
K G Bopaiah. But on both counts, the SC provided foils to the decisions, saving his constitutional office from the charge of proveable impropriety. Politically, Karnataka proved the Congress needs to come down from its high horse, be part of the larger opposition umbrella, if it wants to take on Modi-Shah in 2019. That opposition figures from far and wide, and from disparate political leanings, joined in to push the Congress and JD(S) into an alliance, was the first peek into how things may pan out. A moment of reckoning for both the BJP and the federal front.