Brazen assault on the state.

Of late, and especially in the past six months, political parties have deflected people's perceptions of their failures towards an orchestrated assault on state institutions. Every pot broken in the potter's house has been blamed on one institution, the Pakistan Army. While the perception of meddling in the political domain may hold some water, the government and opposition both have played to the gallery and ensured that no stone is left unturned to malign the army and its leadership.

Democracies are noisy and volatile; change of power can take many forms and shapes. Two recent examples are worth quoting. Rishi Sunak's elevation as Prime Minister of the UK went through a cutthroat battle within the Tory party, we saw the fall of Boris Johnson, followed by Liz Truss, and then the emergence of Rishi Sunak. Was it the establishment or the King meddling in the politics of Conservatives or the result of an archaic democratic system that lost its moral ground?

Similarly, India witnessed the two state governments of Maharashtra and Bihar change guards in a bizarre fashion. Yadav Thakray's Shiv Sena stabbed him in the back and formed a coalition with the BJP, where a sitting CM of Bihar switched sides and left the BJP in a lurch to form a government with the collaboration of the opposition. Referring to our previously published piece in the Nation, Nitish Kumar has become a symbol of changing sides and playing power politics with no holds barred. Despite being a socialist, he has made alliances with the left, right, and centre. In 2015, Nitish Kumar left the alliance with the BJP and joined hands with Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress. This ensured that the JD(U)-RJD-Congress 'Mahagathbandhan' won the state of Bihar in 2015, Nitish Kumar became the chief minister and RJD's Tejashwi Yadav was his deputy. Like a chameleon, Nitish Kumar defected to the BJP and brought down the Mahagathbandhan government in 2017. He remained a coalition Chief Minister till 2020 and contested elections in 2020 to get another term. He has again switched sides to join the opposition.

Pakistan's democratic journey is passing through an evolutionary process, backstabbing, switching sides and intra-party coups will become a norm in the coming days. After all, the Chaudhrys of Gujarat are enjoying unprecedented power at the centre and Punjab through astute positioning and exploitation of the numbers game.

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