INDIAN President Draupadi Murmu was quite obviously snubbed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi when she was not invited for the inauguration of the new Parliament building last year in May.

According to one news report at least 21 opposition parties boycotted the inauguration because they said that Murmu and not Modi should inaugurate the new building.

The report noted that sessions of both the Lok Sabha (the House of Commons) and the Rajya Sabha (the Upper House) are summoned and prorogued by the President on the advice of the government.

At the time, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge wrote on Twitter (now X): “The parliament of India is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India, and the President of India is its highest constitutional authority. She alone represents government, opposition, and every citizen alike.” He added: “Inauguration of the new parliament building by her will symbolise [the] government’s commitment to democratic values and constitutional propriety.”

Now that Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has only 240 seats in the Lok Sabha — 32 short of an absolute majority — and has to rely on its allies to survive, it could at some stage face a crisis if the opposition group, INDIA, manages to convince some of those allies to support it to form a government.

In any constitutional crisis, Murmu would have the final say as to who should get a chance to form a new government — and Modi could well end up regretting that he snubbed her!