Date:09/11/2002 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2002/11/09/stories/2002110906150100.htm

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Prove charge or face legal action, Farooq tells Lyngdoh

By Shujaat Bukhari

SRINAGAR NOV. 8. The former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference patron, Farooq Abdullah, has threatened legal action against the Chief Election Commissioner, J.M. Lyngdoh, if he does not substantiate his charge that attempts were made to sabotage the recent Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

The NC president and Dr. Abdullah's son, Omar Abdullah, too said the CEC should either withdraw the statement or be "ready to face legal action".

The strong reactions came soon after Dr. Abdullah filed his nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha election in Jammu today. "If he (Mr. Lyngdoh) has said so, then he should substantiate it with evidence or else we will go for legal proceedings against him,'' Dr. Abdullah said adding the statement from a top constitutional authority was "unfortunate". "Those living in glass houses should not throw stones at others".

Participating in a programme on a private TV channel, Mr. Lyngdoh was reported to have said on Thursday that there was an attempt to sabotage the elections in Jammu and Kashmir by a few people, essentially police, which would have helped the National Conference. There was a plan to release all former militants who had surrendered so that they could infiltrate the electorate. "But we nipped it in the bud," Mr. Lyngdoh had said.

The Election Commission also stopped a plan to "divert" the attention of the Army by deploying soldiers in road clearance and checking operations to "leave the field open for mischief".

Asked whether he was suggesting that the entire administration was involved, Mr. Lyngdoh had said: "Not everybody in the State Government. There were a few people basically in the police." Was Dr. Abdullah involved? The CEC said: "They were doing things which could have helped him". But when specifically asked whether Dr. Abdullah was in the know of it, he said, " I would not know."

Dr. Abdullah said "the CEC should, instead, have spent his energies on the revision of electoral rolls and issuing of voter identity cards to the people of the State living in far-flung areas rather than making such statements".

Omar Abdullah told The Hindu over phone from Jammu that his party was "consulting lawyers in this matter". This was not the way the head of India's Election Commission should issue statements or level allegations against a Government which ruled the State for six years.

The Congress and CPI(M) have demanded a high-level probe into the CEC's allegations. The Pradesh Congress Committee president, Ghulam Nabi Azad, said "the Government should look into it". "The CEC should reveal the details of the police personnel who tried to sabotage the polls as the allegations are serious," Mr. Azad told this correspondent.