It should be a Jayaprakash Narayan moment for India’s opposition. Widespread economic instability evokes the early 1970s, when a reclusive septuagenarian had stepped into the melee declaring ‘sampurna kranti’ (total revolution) against an all-powerful prime minister.

JP’s voice had galvanised people; the Mamata-Kejriwal front, however energetic, lacks national heft and bandwidth. Without the participation of Congress, Left or other mainstream parties, a pressure group cannot seriously threaten Narendra Modi armed with a massive mandate.

The opposition moment is shot through with disunity. The Congress will not join any movement with Kejriwal as its leader. Mulayam and Mayawati are unlikely to share a stage, however much they may dislike Modi. In fact, the politics of ‘Modi vs the rest’ suits the prime minister well, given his image of a battling Arnold Schwarzenegger jousting against a range of foes, including within his own party.

The BJP has already dubbed the opposition front a ‘coalition of the corrupt.’ And indeed, the political opposition seems weak even in this crisis chiefly because of the moral fallibility of so many of its members. There is the ever-ready perception that many opposition parties are simply running scared, that Modi’s decisive move has hit them where it hurts, namely their cash-rich election war chests.

Both Mayawati and Mulayam still have disproportionate asset cases against them; Mamata Banerjee has not fully extricated herself from the Sarada chit fund scam, while the Congress having ruled for much of the last 70 years, is still perceived as wallowing in graft. Even the BJP must answer why it doesn’t disclose the source of all its political funds or agree to subject its accounts to RTI scrutiny. As an ADR report has pointed out, almost all major political parties have failed to disclose as much as 75 per cent of their funding sources. The Left, and to some extent the AAP, could claim the moral high ground on political funding, but all others are governed by the adage, ‘hamaam mein sab nange hain’.

Lacking JP’s moral stature, the opposition today is unable to readily capture the public imagination. No wonder Modi believes that he can bypass the political system entirely, go directly to the people and declare that it’s the opposition that is preventing him from cracking down on black money. Evidently Modi doesn’t feel in the least threatened or intimidated by his political rivals. His self-confidence is understandable. Not only does the opposition lack an emotive marketable issue, but there’s no national opposition leader who can match Modi’s communication and event management skills. Grand coalitions or mahagathbandhans remain Modi’s only threat, as Bihar 2015 showed.

So where is Jayaprakash Narayan 2.0? Rahul Gandhi is still lurching from one outburst to another. Arvind Kejriwal is a determined Modi-baiter but AAP is not yet an all-India force. No one would take either Mayawati or Mulayam or Lalu seriously on an anti-corruption crusade, while Mamata and Nitish remain largely confined to their own states. Nitish, in any case, has made it clear he supports demonetisation. Where then is the national opposition that can actually offer an alternative to what feels like the Modi juggernaut, even at a time of acute voter restlessness?

Yet Modi has cause for worry. The conviction that he’s invincible could become his Achilles heel. When a government undertaking harsh measures does not come across as compassionate, when the father of a prospective bride dies of a heart attack brought on by a desperate lack of cash, when parents are left with a dead infant because they couldn’t pay medical bills, when senior citizens lose their lives while standing in queue, and when they do not receive open-hearted, generous sympathy, there is a danger that the people are being taken for granted. A bit like Amitabh Bachchan in late ’70s Bollywood, Modi towers over his opponents. But prime ministers who believe they tower over the people become a victim of their delusions, as Indira did.

The divided opposition is Modi’s biggest strength but when politicians fail, the people become the opposition. Underestimating the opposition is okay, but it is never okay to underestimate the public. So when BJP leaders call anyone questioning demonetisation a terrorist, when a government mocks the queueing middle class as black money scamsters, when ministers ask why the poor don’t use plastic, then real anger begins. And when that happens it ceases to matter whether there’s an opposition or not. Then there’s only a tidal wave that no leader, however powerful, can hope to conquer, when JP’s shout quoting the poet Dinkar is once again heard: “Singhasan khali karo, ki janata aati hai.” (Vacate the throne, the people have come)..