As India enters an election year, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party looks as invincible as the Congress once looked in the first few decades after Independence. Many believe that the only way a regime change can be effected is if political parties in the opposition come together to form a mahagathbandhan, or a grand coalition. As the opposition faces the arduous task of uniting disparate interests and ideologies, there is much they can learn from the story of Ram Manohar Lohia—the first architect of coalition politics in India. Also in this issue: Bela Bhatia on what really happened in the Nulkatong encounter; Hartosh Singh Bal on how caste trumped class in the state elections; Himanshu on why the Modi government is obscuring data on unemployment; Yogendra Yadav on what the Modi government has done to farmers; Gabriele Cecconi on the environmental crisis unfolding in the world’s largest refugee camp; Sara Rai on her journey out of and into language.