Has Modi the tiger changed his stripes after Bihar defeat?

Is Prime Minister Narendra Modi finally going to unveil his new persona? Is he finally chastened after his Bihar defeat?

The unthinkable seems to be happening and only a new avatar of Modi - shall we call it Modi 2.0? - could have done it. Friday saw a new political visage of PM Modi inside and outside Parliament.

In Parliament, in his intervention during a debate on Constitution on the 125th anniversary of BR Ambedkar, he acknowledged that all previous governments and prime ministers had contributed to the growth and development of the country. However, he didn't fail to pat his own back by reminding the country that he had said so in as many words from the ramparts of the Red Fort and that he was not aware whether any previous prime minister had done so.

He also said: "The spirit of this (Constitution) debate is not 'you' or 'I', it is 'We'." This remark certainly looks to be a polite response to his frequent criticism by the Congress party that Modi is so full of himself and it is all "I, me and myself" with him.

Outside Parliament, he did something that he hadn’t since taking over as the prime minister 18 months ago. He invited Congress president Sonia Gandhi and his predecessor Manmohan Singh over tea at his residence. Looks like his close advisers had read what this writer's suggestion that Modi needs to break bread with the Gandhis and Manmohan Singh to break political and parliamentary impasse over key reforms. 

However, Modi didn't fail to score a brownie point over his arch rival Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi as he did not invite him for the tea party. Perhaps, this is one area where he still needs to work more.

This entire exercise is aimed at mollycoddling the Congress to win the opposition party's support for his government's GST bill, the biggest tax reform in the history of independent India, which, if made into law, will create a single market in India and open floodgates of foreign investments.

This is easier said than done as the Gandhis have already indicated that  three issues on GST were non-negotiable for them: the 1 per cent tax for manufacturers, the constitutional cap of 18 per cent for GST rate and an independent dispute resolution mechanism for GST.

What PM Modi has done with all this is that he has put the ball in the court of the Congress. He has shown to the man on the street as well his political rivals that he is willing to be malleable and walk an extra mile for the larger national interest.

It is for the Congress party to take the next step. The opposition party is in a Catch-22 situation. Either way it stands to lose. If the Congress lends support to the GST Bill, which in any case has been its own baby, it unfetters and unchains Modi and allows him to put the country on path of economic growth and prosperity - a sure political hara-kiri for the Congress.

If the Congress opposes GST and other reforms it stands to lose the people's perception war.

But it is not for nothing that the grand old party has ruled India for almost six decades. The Congress strategists will inevitably come up with some ingenious ways to ensure delay of GST rollout.

Modi the tiger may have changed his stripes for now. But the real political war between him and the Congress has just begun.