Arunachal story, from ground zero

On ground zero, Article 356 of the Indian Constitution is not at all a part of debate. The most discussed issue in Itanagar and, in fact, across Arunachal Pradesh is whether the governor acted prudently in recommending President’s Rule or not. Most feel that the governor’s actions were justified, but that doesn’t take away the great sense of loss, pain and disappointment in the Congress for wasting an absolute mandate. It had 47 legislators in a 60-member Assembly.

Though the case against the imposition of President’s Rule in Arunachal Pradesh is being heard by a five-member Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court, the fact is that Gauhati high court has upheld the governor’s decision and the apex court has not stayed that judgment. What pains me to no end is to witness the strange “media spinning” in Delhi, instead of newspapers and TV channels focusing on the core issue, i.e. the role of elected leaders, as well as proprietary and probity in public life. It is unfortunate that the discourse about Arunachal Pradesh in mainland India has been reduced to a stand-off between the Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress, a replication of the Lok Sabha, or is seen as a constitutional crisis, whereas the real issue is the conflict within the Congress and corruption.

The first sparks flew in December 2014, when senior rebel Congress leader and “chief minister-in-waiting” Kalikho Pul was dropped from chief minister Nabam Tuki’s Cabinet after Mr Pul raised concerns about fiscal discipline in a Cabinet meeting sometime in November. An aggrieved Mr Pul then discreetly started mobilising Cabinet ministers and that’s when the state Pradesh Congress expelled him from the party on April 2, 2015, for a period of six years. Thereon, Mr Pul came out all guns blazing, with incriminating documents pertaining to financial mismanagement to the tune of Rs 6,000 crore, stating that though during the 2014-15 financial year, the state government received Central grant of Rs 5,815.71 crore besides additional fund of Rs 1,109 crore, the chief secretary had to order the closing of financial year a week earlier since the government had gone bankrupt.

These colossal figures didn’t cut much ice with the public till Mr Pul dropped a bombshell. He alleged that the retiral benefits, including General Provident Fund (GPF) and New Pension System (NPS) accounts had been reduced to “zero” — that Rs 864 crore of the GPF and Rs 97 of the NPS had been utilised by the government. The government couldn’t defend the charges and the muck of financial mismanagement stuck. Thereafter public mood and sentiment swung against the Tuki-led government. In the meantime, Mr Pul went to court and got a stay on the expulsion notice served on him on May 18, 2015.

Seizing the escalating “in-fighting” as a window of opportunity, the principal Opposition party in the Arunachal Legislative Assembly, the BJP with 11 legislators, started making the “right noises” in media and reached out to the Raj Bhavan, then occupied by the UPA-II appointee, Lt. Gen. Nirbhay Sharma (retd). The BJP soon realised that Lt. Gen. Sharma was being too soft on the Tuki-led Congress government despite several complaints with incrementing documents. Expectedly, J.P. Rajkhowa, a former bureaucrat and well-known littérateur, replaced Lt. Gen. Sharma as Arunachal Pradesh’s 19th governor. He was accorded a warm welcome by chief minister Tuki a day before he took official charge on June 1, 2015.

Despite Mr Rajkhowa’s impeccable record as an upright bureaucrat and a celebrated and influential littérateur in Assam, he was looked at suspiciously for being a native of Assam — a state with whom Arunachal Pradesh has a long standing boundary dispute that has witnessed much blood bath since Union Territory days. With a National Democratic Alliance-appointed governor in the saddle, the state BJP started mounting a fresh assault on Mr Tuki and the functioning of his government with allegations of corruption and compromising his position and power.

Mr Rajkhowa sought clarifications from Mr Tuki’s office on various allegations, including the controversial “Hollongi Greenfield Airport Project”. Mr Rajkhowa is on record to state that at least Rs 500 crore of the total project cost of '1,150 crore was meant for land compensation and of that the lion’s share went to the family members of Mr Tuki, his cousin brother and ousted Speaker, Nabam Rebia. This led to a breakdown in communication between the Raj Bhavan and the chief minister’s office.

On the other hand, Mr Pul convinced a few more senior Congress legislators and ministers to knock on the door of the All-India Congress Committee to brief the high command. The rebels, comprising 21 MLAs, camped in New Delhi seeking an appointment with the high command, but till date they have not been granted an audience with Sonia Gandhi or even Rahul Gandhi. Not meeting the state Congress rebel leaders is being interpreted as the AICC’s arrogance and insensitivity towards the frontier state and also of using Arunachal Pradesh to settle political brownie points inside and outside of Parliament. Usually a composed man, a rattled Mr Tuki now strayed into more battles. He dropped at least four senior Cabinet ministers and many parliamentary secretaries.

One of the sacked senior ministers, Kumar Waii, accused Mr Tuki of creating “CM’s Super-18 out of 47 Congress legislators”. The turning point in the rebellion came on October 27 last year, when tourism minister Pema Khandu resigned, terming Mr Tuki a failure and demanding his ouster as the leader of the House. Mr Khandu blamed lawlessness as the reason for the fall of 52 per cent in foreign tourist inflow in Arunachal Pradesh compared to the previous year. These and other allegations triggered an avalanche of resignations of political appointees, including principal adviser to the chief minister and former deputy chief minister, Kameng Dolo and chairman of forest corporation and former MLA, Tani Loffa, in protest against Mr Tuki’s leadership and style of functioning. Another setback for Mr Tuki was the World Bank report that ranked Arunachal Pradesh as last in the entire country for “ease of doing business”. An exasperated Mr Tuki reached out to the anti-national force, Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang) to quell the dissidence, a fact that has been quoted by Mr Rajkhowa in his report.

On December 9, Mr Rajkhowa without the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers, revised the order dated November 3, 2015, summoning the Assembly session from December 16-17 instead of January 14-15, 2016. He justified his move stating that a notice for impeachment of the Speaker was served on November 18 by the BJP legislators, but legislative secretariat failed to act upon it even after the lapse of mandatory 14 days. Buttressing his stand on failure of the constitutional machineries, Mr Rajkhowa said that the chief minister had replied to only two of his 18 letters from June to October 2015. Rest of the events of December 16 and 17 are known to the world and much debated. But what is less known is that Mithun is a precious bovine that is considered a sacred animal in various traditional rituals. It was slaughtered right in front of the main gate of the Raj Bhavan as a mark of protest by Congress workers on December 17. What has not been reported is that the mob was led by some senior ministers who are well-versed with customary laws concerning rituals and the sacrifice was definitely an insult to the governor, a constitutional authority. In a tribal society, to avenge such a despicable act, a similar sacrifice must be performed at the protesters’ residence. That sacrifice, metaphorically, of course, may be carried out in the hallowed hall of the Supreme Court. Hopefully.