History is replete with instances of defeat providing the springboard for eventual victory. Now that the reverses of May 4 are upon us, the time has come to transform defeat into a launch pad for success in 2029.

The starting point must be the recognition that in the 2024 general election, the ramshackle INDIA bloc was only eight seats behind the BJP. If only the year-long run-up to that election had been used to give the alliance an identity and purpose, Narendra Modi and Amit Shah might have been rendered history two years ago. As it is, the saffron forces did not take their near-defeat lying down but girded their loins to take the fight to the next stage. That is what has given them repeated breathtaking victories, climaxing on May 4.

Is this then the moment of despair for the tattered remains of the non- and anti-Hindutva Opposition? Has India really been rendered an ineradicable Hindu Rashtra? My answer is an unqualified “No, nil desperandum.” In West Bengal, the SIR was a fraught exercise, casting a shadow on the poll process: 91 lakh voters were deleted from the rolls. The total reinstatement across both phases of elections in the state stood at around 1,600 — 139 names before the first round of voting and 1,468 names before the second. Such........

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