India and the Rana

Along the track of modern-day coalition politics, the iconic personality of Maharana Sanga emerges from the dusty battlefields of the 16th century CE, for he surprisingly continues to remain in the news. The battle-scarred Maharana of Mewar, his official name was Sangram Singh I, built up a confederacy of kingdoms, big and small, to counter armies of the Delhi Sultans, and later Babur, the Timurid invader. His very name 'Sangram' means battle or struggle in Hindi. There are many lessons that can be learnt from his struggles in pre-modern times, and several lessons resonate with Yashwant Sinha's action plan

- RAJU MANSUKHANI The writer is a researcher-writer on history and heritage issues and a former deputy curator of Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya

When the octogenarian Yashwant Sinha writes on opposition politics, it is time to sit up and take note of what the highly-respected well-informed former finance minister has to say: "Indian National Development Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) was formed with a great deal of fanfare on July 18, 2023, a few months before 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Although it didn't win the election, the INDIA bloc gave Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a run for its money," he wrote in an op-ed article titled 'An Action Plan for the INDIA Bloc to Get Its Act Together'. He added: "BJP lost as many as 63 seats and its tally came down from 303 to 240, 32 short of the majority mark in the House. A loss of another 20 seats would surely have seen Prime Minister Narendra Modi out of office. He was lucky he survived by the skin of his teeth with the support of an unprincipled Nitish Kumar and a selfish Chandra Babu Naidu."

Yashwant Sinha rarely minces his words. "In the elections, the Congress party won enough seats (99) for its floor leader Rahul Gandhi to be formally recognised as the Leader of Opposition. But since then, the BJP has won a number of state level elections and regained its mojo," he said, adding, "Modi has gone back to his old ways and is doing what he is best at doing: spreading communalism, destroying institutions and stifling democracy. The INDIA bloc has been making some noises but it is nothing more than a cry in the wilderness. Given these circumstances what should the bloc do? Let me attempt an answer based on my long experience of coalition politics in India."