POLITICAL DRAMA IS GOING ON

POLITICAL DRAMA IS GOING ON

5-MAY-ENG 10

RAJIV NAYAN AGRAWAL

ARA----------------------------It is said that the sun rises first in this very spot on the Indian mainland. Nestled amidst the mountains of the Northeast lies Arunachal Pradesh. From the outside, it appeared tranquil; yet, beneath the surface, a political drama was unfolding—a saga whose layers would peel back only gradually.

In 2014, everything seemed clear-cut. The Indian National Congress held a robust majority; Nabam Tuki occupied the Chief Minister's chair; and their numbers were so commanding that no threat appeared on the horizon. However, in politics, stability is often the greatest illusion. Gradually, dissent began to fester within the party ranks.

Then, suddenly, a rift appeared. A faction of legislators, led by Kalikho Pul, broke away. The Governor's controversial role, disputes over the legislative assembly session, and a rapid succession of events soon escalated the matter all the way to the courts. For a time, everything ground to a halt, and President's Rule was imposed upon the state.

But the real story begins *after* that.

When the Supreme Court's verdict reinstated Nabam Tuki's government, it seemed as though normalcy would finally return. Yet, behind the scenes, a different script had already been written. Suddenly—as if someone had completely overturned the game—the majority of the Congress legislators collectively defected. Not just one or two, but in such large numbers that even the anti-defection laws could not stop them. They joined the People's Party of Arunachal.

The power remained the same, the faces remained the same, but the party had changed. Pema Khandu became the Chief Minister—first under the Congress banner, and now with the new party.

And that is where the story could have ended. But it did not.

A short while later, those very same people—those very same faces—took yet another turn. This time, they gravitated toward the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Not one by one, but almost the entire group in unison. And in the blink of an eye, the government changed once again.

To outside observers, it appeared as though two opposing poles—the Congress and the BJP—were somehow moving in tandem, bound by some unspoken pact. But the truth was something else entirely. It was a game where the players remained the same; they simply kept changing their jerseys. Politics sometimes unfolds like a thriller—where, at every turn, the story is not quite what it seems. In this tale from Arunachal Pradesh, power changed its face, yet the players remained the same, while the spectators spent a long time trying to figure out what had actually transpired.