Photo-ops are not enough

An alliance, or even a tacit agreement that is to appear principled must work to develop a common vision

As political statements go, it was quite impressive. The sight of a galaxy of Opposition leaders on the same stage at Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy’s swearing-in bounced off a million front pages, TV screens and mobile phones, and set up endless speculation about potential alliances come the 2019 general elections. Certainly, nobody familiar with the numbers that determine electoral results who looked at that long line-up could suppose that Narendra Modi had 2019 all sewn up. 

After all, if Modi is as dominant and popular today as Indira Gandhi was in her heyday, then surely it would take