President Donald Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ gift of 26% tariff hike for India notwithstanding, Prime Minister Modi’s pole star continues to shine bright. But Modi's intentions had nothing to do with Trump's tariffs. The Prime Minister's continued invincibility is restricted to India where, with the successful enactment of Wakf Amendment Bill 2024, Modi has fair winds behind him and his invincibility quotient has shot through the roof; this, even when the man wasn't even home!

Since then, BJP spokespersons and media-personalities kowtowing to Modi’s aura are basking in reflected glory. No wonder the terse warning. Prime Minister Modi's “intentions” cannot be questioned, period. To add to the aura, "before 2014” and “after 2014” have been replaced with “before Wakf 2025” and “after Wakf 2025.”

The 'Legend of Modi' has grown with the amended Wakf Act sailing through both houses of Parliament. And Modi’s moth-eaten ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’, translated to ‘Vasudeva Kutumbakam’ in foreign climes, has acquired a new halo. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's ‘Batenge toh katenge’ will have to wait for the Bihar assembly elections to take bugle-position.

Right now, Bihar is in the grips of the “after Wakf 2025” mesh with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar floundering in Wakf doldrums. Did Prime Minister Modi anticipate such an outcome? It did not take long for “Bihari Muslims” to descend on Nitish Kumar and harass and harm him, the very same forces which made him are now bent on unmaking him!

The irony is, Prime Minister Narendra Modi cannot make any amends to Nitish Kumar's situation. Unless, it turns out that Modi's calculations did not go wrong and the "beneficiaries of the amended Wakf Act", the Pasmanda and the Shia and the Ahmedia 'Muslims', etcetera, etcetera, stand by Nitish Kumar. The Bihar Chief Minister has time till the end of 2025 to breathe easy.

The "exodus of local leaders" from the JD(U) in the last 48 hours, their names hardly recognizable, is worrying for the NDA. Nevertheless, the fleeing Muslim leaders can't be nobodies, they must amount to "somebodys" in the lanes and bylanes of Bihar's Muslim concentrations, whose word count and reverberate in Bihar.

Poll-bound Bihar will take forward the Wakf Act ramifications; just like the amended Act will resound in far-off Kerala, which also will be poll-bound soon enough for the political analysts to take note. Just like in Bihar, the next Kerala assembly elections will be fought on the issue of "Wakf" and the dust raised will not settle even after the elections are done and dusted with. Unless, the Supreme Court takes a different stand and turns the tables!

For now, the Janata Dal (U) is in the Muslim doghouse while Modi's other friend-in-need N. Chandrababu Naidu remains untouched by the bile. Naidu's "intentions" are not being questioned. Is the Andhra Muslim differently made? Chandrababu Naidu's Wakf intentions aren't different from Nitish Kumar's, but the two are being treated differently. It cannot be that Chandrababu Naidu's intentions regarding the Wakf amendments are pure as driven snow?

As for Kerala, the Kerala Muslim isn't happy with the exalted Gandhi family. The absence of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rahul Gandhi from the Lok Sabha during the Wakf debate hasn't gone down well with the Muslims of Wayanad, Priyanka's parliamentary constituency. The Wayanad MP's Lutyens pad is not miles away from Parliament House. And what about Rahul Gandhi "appearing in bathroom slippers and pyjamas" and then snoozing once inside the House?

The Kerala media are taking sides with one of them calling the enactment of the amended Act as the “biggest attacks on Muslims… after the Babri incident”. Kerala's Muslims are as apprehensive of the amended Wakf Act as are Muslims all over India. The "significant changes" made to the Act could place many of them in the dock with the power-shift in the reorganized Wakf boards. Enhanced transparency is tantamount to capital punishment!

The apex court will rule whether the amended Act is unconstitutional or not but the question now boils down to whether the so-called Wakf properties have formal documentation to prove their claim? Rahul Gandhi aide and Congress MP K C Venugopal branded the amended Wakf Act “draconian”, but how can Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi help? Neither of them have the extraordinary powers to render Prime Minister Narendra Modi powerless.

The amended Wakf Act has completely changed the political scenario in the country; the most significant of the changes being the perception that the single-block Muslim vote-bank has, "after Wakf 2025", seemingly split down the middle, the effects of which will be seen in the Bihar assembly elections and all elections thereafter, maybe much more in Bihar than in the Kerala assembly elections. 'Sougat-e-Modi' wasn't by any stretch of the imagination nationwide in its ambit.

The amendments to the Wakf Act have left their mark nationwide, from the cool Kashmir Valley to the warm Kerala coastline; from Kutch's salt fields to the higher elevations of Darjeeling. If the amended Wakf Act runs true to form, there should be enhanced assimilation of Muslims and Hindus in the social and national fabric. The amended Wakf Act may even put an end to the tyranny of the 'Ashrafs.'

For now, however, Nitish Kumar and his JD(U) are in the eye of the storm with more and more Muslim leaders of the Janata Dal (United) abandoning both the party and the party head. This is the time for Prime Minister Modi to lend his considerable heft to the beleaguered NDA ally. After all, Nitish Kumar is Modi's crutch. What if Nitish pulls the crutch away even at this hour? Modi has called the passage of the amended Act a "watershed moment", he should know it doesn't take long for the clock to sound the alarm! (IPA Service)