The power of a government, especially a coalition, is measured not by its proclamations and not by how many elections it wins but by its ability to get tough laws passed Make no mistake about it. Amending the Waqf Act of 1995 and repealing the Mussalman Wakf Act of 1923 is part of the ideological agenda of the BJP. Just like the occupation of Ram Janmabhoomi and the perpetuation of Article 370, the Waqf Act of 1995 stood as a reminder of inequity—one denomination (Muslims) enjoying special status over Hindus—in a secular democracy. It had to go. And from all that we’ve seen in Parliament, the Waqf Act of 1995 will be hollowed out by the amendments piloted by the NDA.

But that the BJP has been able to score another ideological goal is not the main learning from Parliament. The real takeaway is that the government has been able to decisively slay the opposition’s claim that Modi is a “one-third PM” and that the NDA is a “paralytic” coalition.

Right after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress party’s media mascot, Jairam Ramesh, began using the phrase “ek tehai” or “one-third” to chide Prime Minister Modi. What Ramesh was trying to insinuate by deploying the barb in his official posts on social media was that because the BJP had ended up short of the majority mark, PM Modi was essentially a lame duck prime minister. The Congress party truly believed that PM Modi in his third innings would have to grovel before unpredictable coalition partners Nitish Kumar and N Chandrababu Naidu to get pending controversial reforms passed.

But a lot of water has flown down the Ganges since then. Far from being diminished, the BJP has gone from strength to strength after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, notching one bigger electoral victory after the other in the states. Far from being the picture of a spent force losing credibility among voters, the BJP and, by extension, Prime Minister Modi have diminished the opposition. It is as if the Lok Sabha setback was an imminently inconsequential aberration. It goes without saying that the resurgence of the BJP has also meant that power equations have changed within the NDA. Nitish’s JDU and Naidu’s TDP have less incentive to rock the boat. They are nowhere near being the opposition’s fabled “one-third PMs” within the coalition sharing equal power with PM Modi.

But truth be told, the power of a government, especially a coalition, is measured not by its proclamations and not by how many elections it wins but by its ability to get tough laws passed. As a rule of thumb, reformist legislative interventions, like the Waqf Amendment Bill, 2025, that challenge the status quo and entrenched power structures require governments to exhaust huge political capital, often available to only those regimes that are blessed with vast mandates. And sometimes, even an overwhelming mandate is not enough. Consider how the NDA had to roll back the 3 farm laws even though the BJP had a seemingly formidable majority on its own in Lok Sabha.

And it is for this reason that a numerically depleted BJP’s ability to push the Waqf Amendment Bill, which severely disrupts the status quo, signals that it retains the risk appetite and public trust to drive disruptive change. This assertion of power will inspire confidence at a time when reforms—financial and social—are the need of the hour for India to acquire gati-shakti towards viksit status.

Keywords – Narendra Modi, NDA, Parliament, Waqf