It was a historic summer: the general elections in May easily qualifying as the defining marker of the political landscape of 2014. The massive mandate the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), secured under the leadership of the controversial Narendra Modi, decisively swung India’s political pendulum to the right — economically as well as electorally. For the multiple stakeholders in the political and economic system, the moment was loaded with contradictory implications. The corporate bigwigs and majoritarian organisations like Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) were keenly awaiting the turning of a new page. India’s oldest political party, the Indian National Congress, was washed out in the BJP wave, which also swamped regional stalwarts like the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Janata Dal (United). The frightening absence of a credible opposition suddenly hammered home. Unpleasant memories of the Congress, riding on the back of its brute majority in Parliament and cracking the whip (recall the disastrous Shah Bano verdict under Rajiv Gandhi), loomed large.

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Corporate heads and media analysts rejoiced over what they believed — however facilely — to be the death of ‘difficult’ regional parties. They celebrated the advent of a manageable bi-partisan political structure. Amid the shrill pro-Modi euphoria, a volatile Mamata Banerjee, despite her disappointing tenure of two years and more in Bengal, held her own in her state.

The other marker of 2014 politics came with the rapid denouement of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The AAP’s disintegration as a party that represented alternative politics within the formal system, and the unravelling of the charismatic Arvind Kejriwal following his hasty exit from Delhi government, was the year’s other significant political narrative. The hope of alternative politics, born with the spontaneous anti-corruption movement led by Anna Hazare in 2011, later leading to the formation of the AAP, fizzled out all too soon.

In more ways than one, 2014 affirmed the corporate style of governance. Narendra Modi, aided by the media, had sought votes in the name of good delivery systems. Its severe flaws hidden from the public, the Gujarat model of governance that Modi presided over for three years, won him that huge mandate with the electorate.

Now is the time to deliver. But the core ideology of the BJP is on collision course with the economic agenda of the Modi government. 2014, it could be argued, worked well for the economically and the politically powerful. This was the lobby that worked hard at decimating the AAP and bringing in the BJP. Their efforts paid off. Now they want their pound of flesh.

On the other side of the spectrum, those wary of the BJP’s intrinsic communal politics have been vindicated in their anxiety. The communal polarisation that marked the 2014 general elections has micro-manifested across the country. Within six months of the new government’s formation, riots broke out in Delhi’s Trilokpuri locality, a church was burnt down in another corner, a Cabinet minister hurled abuse at minorities at a public meeting, a controversial ghar wapsi (reconversion) campaign run by various RSS outfits, triggered furore in and outside Parliament. If the Prime Minister broke his prolonged silence, his words were tempered enough to be ambiguous.

Anxious over vote-bank erosion, the heads of so-called secular parties have hurriedly come together under the rubric of Janata parivar. These fragmented socialist parties have formed a ‘secular’ front led by Mulayam Singh Yadav, whose own secular credentials are under the scanner.

The space for alternative politics remains empty. Following the loss of West Bengal, the mainstream Left parties are facing near-extinction. That space is now occupied by hundreds of non-party Left organisations, resisting neo-liberal economic policies on the ground. Whether or not the AAP can resurrect itself in the forthcoming Delhi assembly elections is yet to be seen.

2014 was a year of political tumult: hope, despair, promise, betrayal — collapsing into one another. Game theorists would say the future course of politics would depend on the conditions under which the stakeholders in the system negotiate in the coming days. The ideological and economic stakeholders will bargain with each other to stay in power. Meanwhile, Narendra Modi, the political face of 2014, may yet face his toughest challenge in the coming days.