Opinion - Editorials

Towards credible elections

THE PREPARATIONS BEING made by the Chief Election Commissioner, J.M. Lyngdoh, for the coming elections to the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly substantially address the logistical aspects of the overall objective of ensuring a free and fair poll process. The most significant suggestion is that there would be no bar on any prospective observers, including foreign nationals — at least the foreign media — accessing the polling stations, except of course that such persons will not have, nor may claim, any official status or recognition. If this makes for transparency, the CEC's decision to involve designated officials in such operations as distribution of voter identity slips and his assurance that the voter would not be compelled or coerced in any way by the security personnel in exercising the franchise seek to address some of the grave malpractices that are known to have seriously vitiated the entire process on earlier occasions so much so as to have eroded people's faith in the democratic system itself as obtaining in Jammu and Kashmir. Even here, much depends on how effectively these declarations of intent and promise get translated on the ground, a task that is going to be formidable, given the vested interests certain political forces have developed in such systemic distortions.

The practical part is perhaps the less problematic aspect of the exercise from the operational viewpoint. Countering the looming threat from the militant elements who are hellbent on sabotaging the process is a daunting challenge. A positive development in this context is the U.S.-underwritten commitment by the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, on checking infiltration into Jammu and Kashmir and dismantling terrorist training camps, which should in its own way help in mitigating the threat. Yet there can be no underestimating the subversive potential of the jehadi groups operating in the State, not to speak of those who might have already sneaked in. The ruthless assassination last month of the moderate Hurriyat leader, Abdul Gani Lone, and the more recent attempt on the Chief Minister, Farooq Abdullah, are ominous pointers to what lies ahead for the security planners and the political leadership, as much as for that section which may be inclined to join the mainstream political process under certain conditions. The challenge indeed lies in deploying adequate security forces to ensure that the voters and the candidates feel not only personally safe but free to play their respective participatory roles in the process.

Substantively speaking, it is the initiatives aimed at securing as wide a participation of political and ideological opinion as possible that will ultimately determine the credibility of the democratic exercise, and this acquires critical importance in Jammu and Kashmir where the people stand severely alienated from the state. The Atal Behari Vajpayee Government is yet to come out with a creative package in this regard. But some of its recent actions suggest that the political space available may be constricted — rather than enlarged — and, worse, in a manner designed to benefit certain sections or parties. What needs to be remembered is that, at this defining moment in the history of Jammu and Kashmir, the question whether the democratic exercise is free and fair is critically linked with the emergence of a body of credible and truly representative interlocutors with a mandate to secure for the State an autonomous status within the constitutional framework and consistent with the special provisions of Article 370. In the runup to the poll, the endeavour of the Government should be to neutralise and isolate the anti-democracy elements through imaginative political initiatives, rather than by cracking the whip of draconian laws and putting them behind bars — a course of action that may well prove counter-productive by unnecessarily allowing them to become rallying points of sorts.

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