Evidently, under a carefully orchestrated and diligently executed programme of wholesale defection, the Congress government in Arunachal Pradesh was pulled down on Friday when all its legislators except one announced they were joining a regional outfit, the People’s Party of Alliance (PPA). The PPA had acted as the cat’s paw for the BJP in February as well when under the aegis of an over-compliant Governor, the Congress government of Nabam Tuki had been brought down through BJP’s machinations. The Supreme Court restored Congress rule, and passed sharp strictures against the “unconstitutional” behaviour of governor Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa, who was recently booted out by the Centre. But within two months, the Centre’s cowboys have struck again.
Pema Khandu, the Congress Chief Minister in the restored government who switched with his legislators to the PPA, remains the chief minister. It can reasonably be expected that the BJP will back this PPA government and direct its political and administrative operations, possibly until such time as the PPA becomes the BJP unless the RSS would like to keep the regional outfit alive for tactical reasons. Former Congress leader of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma, who switched to the BJP just before the recent Assam Assembly election, has slowly been unveiling himself as the coordinator for BJP’s spread to all the states of the North-East through the use of unconventional means. Interestingly, BJP president Amit Shah was in Manipur the day before the toppling operation in Itanagar. At the level of formality and in public posturing, however, the saffron party would like us to believe that it has nothing to do with what’s happening. It is no doubt aware of the massive political immorality involved in such proceedings, and the public ignominy it may court.
Why it’s all so immoral and gross is that the electoral verdict of the people in the last Arunachal Pradesh election has been stood on its head, a feat which is hard to achieve unless money has been made to flow like water. Power play has been taken to obnoxious limits and no one knows if the game has ended. If the Supreme Court intervened two months ago to unearth the earlier skulduggery, the remedy today lies in fresh election and not in non-stop manipulation of the people’s mandate through the show of money and power. Such horse-trading has not been seen in Indian politics since the “Aaya Ram Gaya Ram” phenomenon in Haryana of nearly four decades ago. The subverting of political loyalties through money and muscle power witnessed in Haryana then has played out with variations in many small states over time, but never have things been so foul as the Arunachal Pradesh drama that began to unfold in February.
