When arrogance is coupled with stupidity, the outcome can be nothing less than disastrous. When political incompetence is married to economic high-handedness, the result is certain to be debilitating and destabilising. This, in short, summarises the current denouement of the ruling UPA-II coalition, which has been buffeted by storms in the country's political economy and battered by perceptions that it is unable (and unwilling) to combat food inflation and corruption.