India, Aug. 3 -- Following the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, when the BJP's much-publicised slogan "Abki baar 400 paar" ended with the party being reduced to around 240 seats, many political pundits remarked that this was, in effect, a defeat of the BJP's arrogance. I would also view Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation in the same light, because the BJP appears to have drawn no meaningful lessons from the 2024 verdict.

The protests that erupted in response to the NEET medical entrance examination paper leak included, in particular, opposition from the newly formed Cockroach Janata Party (CJP.). Since this organisation had no substantive political presence on the ground and no widely recognised leader, the BJP initially chose ...