Date:11/08/2002 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2002/08/11/stories/2002081104640100.htm

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Centre sticks to poll time-table

By Harish Khare

New Delhi Aug. 10. The Centre is neither surprised nor disappointed that the All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) has decided not to participate in next month's elections to the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly. Though it has been noted that at least for now the Hurriyat leadership has stopped short of giving a boycott call, authoritative sources suggest that the Centre was not prepared at this late stage to walk the extra mile to persuade it to take part.

Today's decision merely reconfirms the Centre's understanding of the Hurriyat leadership and its lack of functional autonomy. Though on Friday, the Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, L.K. Advani, had "authorised" the Kashmir Committee (headed by the former Union Law Minister, Ram Jethmalani) to talk to the separatist leaders, no one here is under any illusion that the Hurriyat leadership has the independence to make a decision on its own, without a nod from Pakistan's ISI establishment. The one-year extension for Abdul Gani Bhat as APHC chairman reinforces this perception. Thus, as far as the Centre is concerned, there would be no change in the election time-table, already announced by the Election Commission; nor is there any inclination to bring Jammu and Kashmir under Governor's Rule without the concurrence of the Chief Minister, Farooq Abdullah. Nor is there any "re-think" on the question of a role for "international observers".

Yet what the Centre does want is to do whatever it would take to make the election a credible exercise. There is the realisation that even the non-separatist political groups and parties are apprehensive about the National Conference's track record of rigging the elections. Even the Congress has expressed the view that there could be no free and fair elections as long as the National Conference controlled the State Government.

For now, the accent is on instilling a sense of confidence among the non-National Conference, non-separatist groups that there would be a level playing field during the elections. The fear is that the State Government would discriminate against non-National Conference candidates and activists in the matter of providing "security cover". A bigger fear is that the Abdullah Government could use the trigger-happy "renegades" to eliminate rivals of the National Conference.

The Centre, therefore, is expected to continue its efforts to persuade the Chief Minister to step down and recommend Governor's Rule. The lingering hope is that Dr. Abdullah can still be made to see reason.