The Narendra Modi model of governance can be analysed only if his personality traits and ideological worldview are scrutinised for an understanding of a leader of a party that has won 282 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats, and 31 per cent votes in a turnout of 66.4 per cent.It is only after Jawaharlal Nehru Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi that a party and its leader have a clear mandate to govern India from 2014 to 2019.Who is Narendra Modi?First, Modi is a product of the Hindu seminary of the RSS. The ideological foundation of the RSS is to work for the welfare of Hindu Bharat Mata that has supposedly been under siege from non-Hindu or Muslim invaders. Modi has said, "I am a Hindu, I am a nationalist and I am a patriot."Second, as chief minister of Gujarat for over 10 years, he ran a government in which Muslims never found any representation. Not was there any Muslim candidate in the state polls of 2012.Third, his style of governance was authoritarian, by empowering a bureaucracy loyal only to him. He did not appoint a Lokayukta for nine years, till he got a person who was loyal to him.So, it is imperative to identify some important constitutional checks and balances that can keep the Modi administration within the constitutional "basic structure of India".First, socially and spatially, the verdict of 2014 elections shows that in spite of 282 seats won by the BJP, its real support base is limited in terms of territorial dispersal among the 29 states and seven Union territories of India.Even without Muslim votes, the BJP's geographical reach is concentrated in the eight states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Bihar, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra from where it has won 211 seats out of 282, and secured 11.7 crore, or two-thirds, of 17.2 crore voters.But it does not represent the continental diversity of India and important "peripheries" like Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim on the one hand, and Jammu and Kashmir on the other.Arunachal Pradesh has a Congressled government, Tripura has a Leftled government, and even in 2014, Manipur has elected two Congress MPs and Mizoram's only one. In Assam, Tarun Gogoi's Congressled government watched as Modi's campaign split votes between Hindus and Muslims.How will the Centre now help Assam maintain law and order in the volatile region? In its euphoria, the BJP should not forget that the aspirations of the northeast and J&K are complex, volatile and different from the Hindi mainland.The RSS' idea of India is less nuanced with a more centralised government with a powerful, authoritarian figure at the helm. Centralising forces are diluted when we have checks and balances of a coalition government. But the BJP doesn't need the NDA any more. An alternative political alliance of opposition parties in the Lok Sabha seems to be a possibility.Only a viable and effective opposition in the Lok Sabha can act as a real countervailing force to Modi's centralisation. The Congress party and its UPA allies with 66 members, Trinamool Congress with 34, AIADMK with 37 members, Biju Janata Dal with 20, SP with five and a few others can emerge as a compact opposition in the Lok Sabha.In the first Lok Sabha, the Nehru-led Congress had a majority, but the combined opposition of communists and socialists acted as a vigilant watchdog of people's interests. Naveen Patnaik gave marching orders to the BJP after the anti-Christian Kandhamal riots.Mamata Banerjee with J Jayalalithaa and Patnaik floated the idea of a federal opposition front before the Lok Sabha elections. The rationale for such an idea has assumed some significance in the changed political landscape.The BJP is committed to the idea of a separate Gorkhaland from Bengal, which should bother Mamata. Modi had announced that he would take chief ministers on board while framing important national policies.Will Mamata agree with Modi's formulation that Muslim Bangladeshis should be commanded to leave and Hindu Bangladeshis could continue to reside in the border areas of West Bengal and Assam? For the regional parties, anti-Congressism is dead and the focus must shift to maintaining India's inclusiveness and diversity.(The author is a Distiguished Scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)