Something's not quite right in Arunachal

There is more than a hint of jiggery-pokery in the swearing-in of a new government in Arunachal Pradesh on Friday night, and it appears that the plotters have pulled off a constitutional coup, aided by the judiciary’s lackadaisical approach.

A dissident group of MLAs of the Congress, until a few weeks ago the ruling party, has been able to pull down the government of Nabam Tuki in collusion with the BJP MLAs, and install its leader, Kalikho Pul, as the new chief minister — with more than active involvement of governor J.P. Rajkhowa. In circumstances such as these, it is hard to miss the guiding hand of the Centre.

Evidently, all was not well within the ruling Congress. With the  dissidents getting active and making common cause with the BJP bloc in the Assembly, the constitutionally pucca thing for the governor to do was to direct Mr Tuki to take a vote of confidence to re-affirm his majority, or flounder in the process.

The governor did not follow this course. Instead, he chose last December to summon a session of the Assembly without bothering to consult the chief minister. This amounted to actively encouraging those plotting to get rid of Mr Tuki as chief minister. A “session” of the “Assembly” was called, using a community hall and then a hotel as venue by the Congress breakaway group, several of whom had been disqualified by the Speaker, and the BJP and Independents.

The Gauhati High Court disregarded these plainly irregular goings-on, which should have alerted its constitutional sense, and placed a stay on the disqualification of the dissenting Congress MLAs by the Speaker. As the matter was before the courts, the then chief minister felt constrained not to hold a session of the state Assembly within six months of the previous session, a mandatory requirement.

Failure to do so was made the reason for the imposition of President’s Rule, besides a clutch of incidents cited by the governor as evidence of an irretrievable breakdown of law and order. These were widely made fun of, so absurd was the governor’s reasoning.

The Supreme Court, unfortunately, was unable to see the vacuous nature of the Centre’s case for imposing President’s Rule. The real motive of the Union government became plain when Central Rule was revoked within weeks of its imposition, and the leader of the dissident Congress camp enabled to become chief minister. Constitutional propriety demanded that Mr Tuki be first given the chance to demonstrate whether he still enjoyed majority.

Strangely, some two months have gone by but the Gauhati high court has still not taken a view on the case of the disqualified Congress MLAs, and the stay on the Speaker’s decision continues. It is the stay which has allowed a new government to be sworn in.