Governor Mahabir Prasad is apparently satisfied with the numbers he has been provided on paper and in person in support of the Indian National Lok Dal leader's claim to the throne. He does not appear to have been unduly concerned that numbers of this kind have seldom been constants but increasingly notorious variables in this part of the country.

Fear of elections alone is not necessarily the beginning of gubernatorial wisdom in such instances. There may be a strong case against foisting costly polls too frequently on the people, but this can hardly be avoided by cobbling up coalitions out of electoral mandates with in-built instability.

This is the lesson of experience, especially in Haryana. Horse-trading can be expected to produce governments that can endure till a higher bidder comes along,and no longer. Chautala is the `consensus' choice of a new-found alliance -- comprising the INLD, the BJP, the breakaway Haryana Vikas Party (Democratic) and some Independents -- that holds no promise of stability at all. And, not only because the HVP (D) was till a day earlier pressing its own claim to form the government or in view of the known fickleness of Independents.

The opportunism of the main allies militates against the chances of the arrangement staying smooth and succeeding. The BJP had not been very principled, of course, in allying with the HVP of Bansi Lal, whom it had opposed as an authoritarian and undemocratic ruler in the past. Few would believe the national party had made sudden discovery of his failings and foibles when it decided to withdraw support for him. Not a single bit more defensible, however, is the BJP's ardent backing for Chautala.

The Meham episode of violent poll-rigging, which made him a target of the opposition, including the BJP, in the mid-eighties, has not fadedentirely from even the proverbially short public memory. Much less forgotten is his vow on the INLD's behalf to vote against the Vajpayee government's confidence motion in the Lok Sabha, and his subsequent volte-face was something that even many supporters of the government could not stomach.

All this does not mean that the Congress emerges with its image unscathed from Haryana's crisis that Chautala's return to power does not resolve. The party has hardly done itself proud by playing petty political games -- propping up Bansi Lal for a while only to pull the rug from under his feet -- in the same manner as at the Centre to demonstrate a clout despite a continuing decline in poll fortunes.

The fact is that no party has emerged untarnished out of these trying times. All the more reason why an opportunity for a fresh mandate should have been provided for the people of the state. Cracks about `Aya Rams' and `Gaya Rams' are all right. But, they can begin to sound like cruel jokes to the electorate deniedtheir democratic due, a right to punish the perpetrators and perpetuators of instability. Unprincipled and, therefore, unviable alternatives can prove costlier than elections.