New Delhi, Feb. 18 -- Political manuscripts are often written in a clandestine manner. The seeds of thoughts are sown by someone, they sprout somewhere else and, no one knows until the harvest, who will actually get the produce. Last week, when the leaders of major opposition parties gathered at Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar's house in Delhi, journalists covering the event had no idea that this would involve some breaking news.

After a while, the opposition leaders addressed the media and announced the drafting of a common minimum programme (CMP) to get rid of the Narendra Modi government. Although this announcement was made late on Wednesday night, preparations for it have been underway for a long time. It was clea...