The joyous celebration over India getting its first adivasi president — Droupadi Murmu has been administered the oath of office — should not deflect attention from the political messages emanating from her triumph. Once again, it is evident that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance succeeded in queering the pitch for the Opposition. This is evident not just from the scale of Ms Murmu’s triumph over Yashwant Sinha, the joint Opposition candidate, but also from the nimble political thinking on the part of the BJP that led to ruptures in Opposition unity. Data suggest that Ms Murmu received votes from as many as 17 non-NDA members of Parliament and 126 state legislators, with most of the cross-voting among legislators taking place in Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand. Worse, the fate of the Opposition’s vice-presidential contestant, Margaret Alva, appears as bleak. Already, the Trinamul Congress has decided to abstain from voting for Ms Alva, alleging that it was not consulted over the choice, a charge that has been denied by the Congress. The squabbling, a persistent feature of Opposition politics, will widen the grins in the NDA camp.

These developments reiterate the sorry picture that the Opposition has cut for itself. The BJP leadership has not only outthought the Opposition but also sowed seeds of discord repeatedly among its rank and file, robbing the Opposition of the claim of being a potent force. Charges of corruption against the Opposition — the TMC is, once again, a case in point — have been made to stick by means fair or foul, and Opposition governments dismissed by engineering defections. Moreover, a perpetually besieged Opposition has been unable to reap political dividends from policy howlers committed by the Narendra Modi government, cementing its grip on the electoral imagination. With two years left before the next general elections, India’s Opposition stands outwitted, disrespected and — this is its Achilles heel — divided. Its resurrection can no longer depend on the errors committed by the ruling regime. The Opposition needs to reinvent itself — in terms of political wisdom, outreach and mobilisation. But what the Opposition must learn to do first is to sew up inner conflicts and be truly united. Till then, Mr Modi and his government can expect to sail smoothly.