A resurgent opposition and assertive allies have ensured that the Modi regime can no longer push surprise bills and pass them within days: 2024 is not 2019.

President Murmu, Prime Minister Modi, Home Minister Shah and Vice-President Dhankhar all want an activist role for Raj Bhavans to push the government's welfare schemes. But what will that do to the federalism?

The details of how this nexus has created new political power structures in large parts of India.

The latest avatar of Rahul Gandhi as the Leader of the Opposition has clearly unnerved the BJP. However, all attempts to discredit the Congress leader have boomeranged on the ruling party.

Old bedfellows as well as current NDA partners are reeling under an electoral backlash and subsequent internal tremors.

With Amit Shah as anchor man and the leg work left to those like Rajnath Singh, Modi will remain the final arbiter, making crucial announcements and performing ceremonial functions. This is the emerging pattern.    

The RSS hierarchy felt disturbed ever since Narendra Modi began his all-out cult build-up, projecting him as a Hindu icon — as chief pujari, a meditating monk and ‘Hindu hridaysamrat’.

The Modi regime had assigned top priority to reining in the judiciary. However, a few judicial interventions seemed crucial.

Shorn of 'strong leader' halo, Modi could now be forced to eat humble pie on pet schemes such as Agniveer, UCC, CAA and simultaneous polls.

Having exhausted all normal tools, a return to power will force Modi to look for more dictatorial options. For the Opposition, if it forms the government, the immediate task will be desaffronisation and dismantling of authoritarian structures.

Unlike in 2019, this time Modi is caught between conflicting pulls and pressures. Let us look at his campaign thrust during the past fortnight.

It has three weeks left in which it can salvage its reputation and avoid becoming irrelevant.

As the bad news continues to pile up, the Modi regime has decided it is not enough to deny it. The solution: if India is falling in global rankings, it must come up with its own.

Such a frantic quest for justice by varied sections has never happened in India’s judicial history.

Contrary to what Modi said in a recent TV interview, the electoral bonds scheme when unmasked has inbuilt features for extortion and quid pro quo services and may be part of the government's larger scheme involving investigating agencies.

Critics of Trump fear that in his second term he will wreck the structures of US democracy. But his ‘great guy in India’ has already won the trophy in this game.

The RSS never allowed the emergence of authoritarian super bosses under their aegis. Instead, they insisted on consensus decisions and collective leadership. Consider the travails of BJP Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee whenever he tried to cross the RSS’s Lakshman Rekha. Today, there is no line or limit Modi can’t cross.

As the agencies seemingly resort to operations akin to those conducted by dictators, the opposition that Amit Shah has specially directed the investigating agencies to be ready with Chhattisgarh-type bombshells for the Lok Sabha polls.

The poll panel is already enslaved, simultaneous polls, changes in statutes for a one-leader system, and the establishment of a Hindu Rashtra: everything is moving as per the script.

As per the present schedule, about 140 Modi rallies have been lined up across the country during the next three months.