Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other ruling party leaders have been rattled by India’s newly emboldened opposition, which now plans to use its expanded presence in parliament to challenge the Bharatiya Janata Party on multiple fronts, a senior opposition leader said.
Shashi Tharoor, a senior member of the Indian National Congress and 15-year veteran of the lower house of parliament, the Lok Sabha, said BJP leaders appeared "shaken” by a fiery parliamentary speech this week by opposition leader Rahul Gandhi. He said the speech signals the presence of a more forceful opposition in India for the first time since Modi took power a decade ago.
"They’re not used to it. They have to get used to it,” Tharoor said of the BJP during an interview in New Delhi on Wednesday. "We’ve seen the government’s response in Mr. Modi’s speech, so you know where the battle lines have been drawn.”