Taking advantage of loopholes in anti-defection law, party-hoppers treat politics like a job that can be ditched when it doesn’t suit them. Last week, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who has changed affiliation four times in a little more than a decade, pledged his party’s support to BJP while putting the INDIA alliance on the backfoot. Nitish’s somersaults had already earned him the nickname ‘Palturam’ Kumar. Defections are a problem that political parties cannot rid themselves of.