Indian politicians would do anything to become ministers. By the same logic, if threatened with the loss of ministerial offices, they would stop at nothing. What happened in Arunachal Pradesh shows up this seamy side of Indian politics once more. Complying with a new Central law, the chief minister, Mr Gegong Apang, cut his ministry to one-fifth of the strength of the state assembly. The dropped ministers took their revenge by switching over to the Congress, thereby reducing the Bharatiya Janata Party’s government to a minority. But neither Mr Apang nor the BJP can really take a high moral ground on this turn of events. The state had a Congress government led by Mr Mukut Mithi until Mr Apang conspired with the BJP to lure away almost all Congress MLAs to their fold and turn it into a BJP government. It was a shameless betrayal of the people’s mandate and smacked of political opportunism of the worst kind. It would thus be naïve of Mr Apang to expect the dropped ministers to remain loyal to him or the BJP. The chief minister has been given a taste of his own brand of unscrupulous politics.

However, what is more worrying for the system is the role that the state’s governor, Mr V.C. Pande, played in the wake of the turmoil in Itanagar. It is doubtful if he did the right thing by agreeing to Mr Apang’s suggestion for the dissolution of the house. The revolt within his own party clearly showed that Mr Apang’s government had been reduced to a minority. If Mr Pande had any doubt on this score, he should have stuck to the convention of asking the chief minister to face a majority test in the assembly. Not only did he fail to do so, but he also complicated matters by recommending president’s rule in the state. In a bizarre third move, Mr Pande revoked his recommendation, allegedly under pressure from the Congress members of the assembly, who laid a siege on Raj Bhavan. Obviously, they wanted to take advantage of the chaos to try and get back into the government through the back door. New Delhi has enough reason to question the constitutional propriety of the governor’s contradictory actions. Mr Pande will have himself to blame if the Centre decides to remove him. No matter what the BJP’s Central leaders say, Mr Pande’s removal would not be, unlike that of four other governors, because of any links with the sangh parivar. His has been a constitutional and administrative failure. New Delhi has little option but to impose president’s rule and prepare for the assembly polls in the state. That is the only way to prevent power-hungry politicians from trying another round of horse-trading.