Zigzag path to CM’s chair

The man who was chief minister for the shortest period in Indian history is Jagdambika Pal, of Uttar Pradesh on February 21-23, 1998.

At a little shy of a five-month term, Kalikho Pul of Arunachal Pradesh has had slightly better stars. The Congress party has been restored in government in the hill state of Arunachal Pradesh, where, had it done what it has done now, it might not have lost power at all. At 37, Pema Khandu has become the second-youngest CM of the state (the first, Prem Thungan, was 32, in the late 1970s). Ironically, the new CM had joined Pul’s People’s Party of Arunachal when the latter had defected from the Congress. It took Khandu no time at all to return to the Congress, once he was sure he was being made CM.

One part of the problem in the hill state is lots of money and not enough people who know what to do with it. Pema Khandu’s father, Dorji Khandu, was also Congress chief minister. He was killed in a helicopter crash, leaving a sudden and unexpected void which was filled by Nabam Tuki, who became CM in 2014 with 47 MLAs in a House of 60.

With so many MLAs, it was not possible to make everybody a minister. Tuki tried but could not contain rebellion. The way the rebels tell it, they tried to meet Rahul and Sonia Gandhi, to make them understand their point of view. Finally, even V Narayanasamy, now CM of Puducherry, then party general secretary in charge of the northeast states, wouldn’t meet them.

Whether that is true or not, the rebels found a leader in Pul, who negotiated an alliance with the help of the Bharatiya Janata Party. With some help from state governor J P Rajkhowa, they formed a government in February. And, Pema Khandu was a leading light. But, after court intervention that created the conditions for revival of the Congress government, the party realised that making Tuki – an elderly, old-world gentleman, with definite ideas about discipline – the CM again would be inviting trouble.

Former Union minister Kapil Sibal was dispatched to persuade Tuki to step aside in favour of the younger Khandu. At the swearing-in, Tuki, Pul and Khandu sat in one row – a sort of Kal, Aaj aur Kal affair!

The first statements made by Khandu are encouraging. When he lost his father in 2011, it took days to get his remains, as the copter crash occurred in the remote hills of Arunachal. Khandu said after he was sworn in: “I personally know of Luguthang, a village with only 10 families, having about 30 people, all yak grazers who have to move up during the summer to find fodder for their animals. They don’t have a proper road link to the outside world and other basic amenities.” Luguthang , 16,000 ft above sea level, was the village where his father was killed. He has said development of border roads and border villages — many of which China considers its territory — will be his priority. Maybe he will be the one to carry out that mission.