Games of power played in a small field look embarrassingly petty. Even though the outcome of such games may decide the fate of a state. The fate of Goa is particularly miserable. Seldom very far from the edge of acrimonious changes of rule, this time round Goa has been in turmoil ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government, sworn in in 2002, not only lost its one-member lead, but slipped lower in the count in January when more legislators resigned. To help the BJP chief minister, Mr Manohar Parrikar, show his majority on the floor of the house, the speaker of the assembly reverted to what could be called sleight-of-hand in less privileged circles. This allowed the governor, Mr S.C. Jamir, put in place earlier by the United Progressive Alliance, to ask Mr Pratapsinh Rane to form the government with his Congress-led coalition. Worse followed. Another farce during the confidence motion for the one-month-old Congress government misfired badly, when the pro tem speaker, a Congressman himself, refused to allow one member of the legislative assembly to vote because he had a disqualification motion pending against him, while using his own casting vote to break the deadlock of a 16-16 tie. If Mr Rane?s government had managed to salvage any credibility at all from the original defeat of Mr Parrikar on the floor of the house, it can no longer claim even its shreds.

From the point of view of the Manmohan Singh government at the Centre, Goa had begun badly and kept getting worse. With Bihar and Jharkhand now sources of further embarrassment, constitutional cruxes, sly manoeuvrings on the part of all concerned and strident criticism and derision from the opposition, the Centre felt it best to step in. On the premise of two wrongs do not make a right, Goa has been put under president?s rule. It is difficult to say which is more undesirable ? constant bickering, patent dishonesty and destabilization in a state or president?s rule. If the UPA had no other choice, that is only because of the naked and embarrassing tussle for power that upset the Goa government in the first place. It is too much to hope for a civilized outcome to an uncivilized subversion of political ethics. President?s rule may cover up some of the damage some of the time in Goa. It is a pity that the people in the state are unlikely to get a good bargain any time soon.