Power changed its grammar. Quietly. Almost politely. For a decade, Narendra Modi ran a tight ship. One captain. One command. No coalition chaos. No midnight bargaining. The old circus of the 1990s and 2000s was pushed off stage. Between 2014 and 2024, the Bharatiya Janata Party did not just win elections. It bulldozed fragmentation. It ruled with muscle.

Recent events have proved that India’s democratic structure, despite its messiness, can be more responsive and representative than the more rigid American system, which largely serves a smaller population, less heterogeneous and more prosperous than India.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar recently asserted a fundamental truth: India’s destiny will be forged by its own intrinsic strength, not by the grace or grievances of others.

A democracy, like applause, cannot function with one hand alone. It is sustained by the essential interplay, the understanding, restraint, and constructive dialogue between the government and the opposition. When the House falls silent due to obstruction, it is not just business that halts; the very vitality of democracy diminishes.

In India, the internet’s promise of enlightened progress is being paradoxically hijacked to spread regressive thought. Digital platforms, especially WhatsApp and YouTube, have become powerful conduits for astrologers, religious demagogues, and mythologists to broadcast archaic and fundamentalist ideas.

If politics were just about numbers, India's opposition would be a formidable force ready to storm the citadel of power. But in the brutal arena of Indian democracy, raw seat counts mean little without conviction, cohesion, and a compelling counter-narrative. And, on those crucial fronts, the opposition remains woefully short.