Prime minister Manmohan Singh’s spin doctors working for timely elections in Jammu and Kashmir saw their plans evaporating
NEW DELHI: Prime minister Manmohan Singh’s spin doctors working for timely elections in Jammu and Kashmir saw their plans evaporating, as the National Conference, their mainstay in the plan, developed cold feet at the last moment.
The NC joined other parties, barring the BJP, in suggesting to the Election Commission that the prevailing circumstances were not conducive for the electoral process.
The presentation of other political parties such as the Congress, BJP, Peoples Democratic Party, the Left Grouping and the Panthers Party went on expected lines. The Congress adopted a rather ambiguous stand by suggesting that it would go with the decision of the poll panel to hold elections or not.
The PDP vehemently opposed elections at this juncture while the BJP wanted it as per schedule in October-November. Delayed poll would mean succumbing to the separatist forces, the party told the EC.
Contrary to the popular belief that NC strongly stood for timely elections and that was publicly acknowledged by its patron Dr Farooq Abdullah, the party president Omar Abdullah took a stand to the contrary before the EC on Monday. Surprisingly, he toed the PDP line about the prevailing situation in the state particularly Kashmir and the futility of holding polls at this juncture.
However, the party insiders claimed that Omar was compelled to change the stance at the last moment in view of the tone and tenor of the EC’s questioning. Terming the entire exercise as “totally bureaucratic”, they said that the panel started the deliberations with the NC delegation by straightway seeking views on the prevailing law and order situation rather than initiating talks on the possibility of holding elections as per schedule.
“In the face of present ground realities, nobody in his senses could have made a positive portrayal of the situation. So far as the NC is concerned, talking about polls under such circumstances would have looked jarring,” they further said.
Bhim Singh, chairman of the main state-level outfit Panthers Party presented a 12-point memorandum to the EC. The main thrust of Singh’s arguments was on holding delimitation of constituencies before holding elections. He claimed that holding polls without such an exercise would be illegal as no comprehensive revision of rolls has taken place in the state since 1981 leave alone the delimitation process.
a_anand@dnaindia.net
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