Chandigarh, Sept. 12 -- The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab has faced bad news before, but rarely with such relentless frequency.

The latest blow came with the arrest of Khadoor Sahib MLA Manjinder Singh Lalpura, a young and influential leader, convicted along with 10 others in a 12-year-old case for molesting and assaulting a Scheduled Caste woman. His arrest followed just days after a rape and cheating case was registered against another party leader, Sanaur MLA Harmeet Singh Pathanmajra, who escaped from Patiala police custody in Haryana's Karnal shortly after being detained.

The back-to-back cases of crimes against women have emerged at a time when the AAP government is grappling with the state's worst floods in four deca...