The calculus of conventional political analysis doesn’t get it. For it asks clever, pointless questions: Whodunnit? What’s the motive? What’s the next move? Its attempt at weighing a shadow reveals nothing but its own fantasies. Or nightmares. This is where political minds could learn something from a poet or a psychologist.

Most reactions to the Cockroach Janta Party miss a simple truth in plain sight. The CJP is not a party. It is no more and no less than the public. It is not a community. Not even a crowd. It is a stack of emotions. It is nowhere close to a movement. It is just a moment.

And that is why it matters. That is why it must not be dismissed. It is a moment that offers us a glimpse. A rare glimpse of an energy that can reclaim the republic from authoritarian assault. Provided we recognise that this is not a wave, but an undercurrent. Provided we can resist the foolish temptation to capture it. Or the stubborn reflex to stand in its way.

At first sight, it fits in with a pattern of midlife crisis of governments with massive mandates, when protest movements came up from nowhere to expose the underbelly of power. The Gujarat and Bihar movements in 1973-74, Assam movement in 1983, Anna movement in 2012 and Kisan Morcha in 2021 — all successfully challenged seemingly invincible governments, bypassing a lacklustre Opposition.

The Narendra Modi........

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