Fact Files

Election In Indian Held Kashmir

Chief Editor
Muhammad Arshad Tariq
Editor
Sobia Haidar

Polls in Kashmir to Aggravate Situation: APHC

A senior leader of Kashmir's All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) on Monday warned that the October state assembly would further aggravate the already volatile situation in Kashmir.
"It is understood the Kashmiris will again be boycotting the polls drama which will evoke more Indian security forces repression on the people there," Prof Ashraf Saraf said while talking to IRNA here.
The APHC leader vehemently contended that the world community should understand that the real issue is India's inability to fulfil its pledge to the world that Kashmiris will be given the right to self-determination.
A few days back, a senior U.S. administration official had said that the Bush government backed India on the state assembly polls in Kashmir.
"Kashmiris have offered unprecedented sacrifices for freedom and any ploy, like the polls drama, can never be a substitute for a U.N.-mandated plebiscite to let the Kashmiris decide their political future," he noted.
The veteran Kashmiri leader said in categoric terms that come what may Kashmiris would never compromise their principled demand for the right to decide themselves their political future.
He questioned the leading powers' inability to see both sides of the developments taking place in Kashmir for the last decade or more. "It is unfortunate the world does not see what over seven lakh Indian forces were doing against the Kashmiris," he pointed out.
The Kashmir armed struggle, Ashraf Saraf argued, has a history of continuous denial of Kashmiris' right to decide their political future by the respective Indian governments.
He further said that instead of spending billions of rupees on what he called its vain bid to crush the indigenous freedom struggle, India should be realistic enough to pave the way for withdrawal of its forces from Kashmir and allow the U.N. to move in to facilitate a plebiscite.
Kashmir is a disputed territory between Pakistan and India. One part is administered by Islamabad, the other by New Delhi. The dispute has brought both nuclear rivals to the brink of a military conflict for the third time.
The possibility of a war still exists as around one million rival forces continue to be in eyeball-to-eyeball postion at their shared borders since last December.

Kashmir Liberation Cell, July 23, 2002,
http://www.klc.org.pk/klc/feb202/july-23-5.html

India Rejects U.S. Suggestion on Kashmir Elections (Excerpts)

India rejected a suggestion by United States Secretary of State Colin Powell that New Delhi should allow independent international observers to monitor the scheduled elections in India-controlled Kashmir in October.
A few hours after Powell left for Islamabad, spokeswoman of the External Affairs Ministry Nirupama Rao told a press conference that India did not need suggestions on how to conduct elections in Kashmir.
New Delhi was committed to hold free, fair and peaceful elections in India-controlled part of the disputed valley, Rao said.
Early on Sunday morning, Powell urged New Delhi to allow independent international observers to monitor the elections, which he said would be 'helpful' in making the polls 'inclusive.'
"If we have enough observers there, you can see what is taking place, whether people are able to campaign and watch the process of debate among candidates and see actual conduct of elections that will seem to add a level of credibility to the elections," the U.S. secretary of state told a press conference.
Rao rejected the suggestion, saying that any diplomat or individual, who had visa for India, could travel anywhere in the country including Kashmir and could witness the polls in his individual capacity.
However, she said, New Delhi would not allow any nongovernmental organization or group of individuals to observe the elections.
During his talks with Indian leaders including Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Powell did not ask for formal observers for the polls, saying he understood India's position, Rao added.

People's Daily, July 29, 2002,
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200207/29/eng20020729_100486.shtmll

Polls in Held Kashmir Most Difficult Since 1947: Jain

The election machinery in held Jammu and Kashmir has geared up for the most difficult assembly polls since 1947 with revision of electoral rolls, increased security arrangements and addition of 1,000 new polling stations, chief electoral officer Promod Jain said.
"The coming elections are the most difficult since 1947," Jain said while addressing a press conference here. Taking cognisance of complaints that electoral rolls have not been comprehensively revised since 1987-88 elections, he said, "We undertook a massive revision of the rolls and added 300,000 voters."
He said the centre has granted adequate security forces and we have decided to provide security to district presidents or secretaries of all political parties to ensure level playing field, Greater Kashmir reported.
The CEO said around 4,000 officers have been requisitioned from Uttar Pradesh and Punjab for deployment at polling stations during the four-phase polls. Polling stations which had been clubbed due to security reasons during 1996 elections have been de-clubbed and 1,000 more added, Jain said adding the total number of stations now stood at 7,025.
The new polling stations have been set up in areas where the number of eligible voters has exceeded 1500 or the distance to the nearest polling station exceeds two kilometres in hilly areas and three kilometres in plains, he said.
Jain said around 2000 political stations have been classified as hypersensitive and 1000-1500 as sensitive.
"We have made adequate arrangements and are in the process of finalising (deployment of) paramilitary troops at these stations to ensure smooth election process," he added.
Jain said various measures have been taken since January to ensure larger participation and smooth conduct of polls.
The revised electoral rolls have been put up at 8000 places across the state including the polling stations, deputy commissioner's offices, 'tehsil' and 'niyabat' offices. Referring to the Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPICs), Jain said they were not mandatory but useful.
Jain said the identity cards could be used for getting passports, driving licences and state subject certificates. "The non-possession of the EPIC cannot debar a person from casting his vote. Ordinary identity cards, driving licences and even state subject certificates can enable people to exercise their franchise," he made clear adding "nobody is authorised to tear off the ordinary identity cards of the people."
Jain said the election commission will take strict action against the Poonch deputy commissioner for flouting commission directives. "Action in this regard is expected soon," he said. Jain ruled out postponement of the elections to ensure participation of some elements in the electoral exercise.

Kashmir Liberation Cell, August 19, 2002,
http://www.klc.org.pk/klc/feb202/aug-19-3.html

Election in Held Kashmir Futile Exercise: Shabir

Democratic Freedom Party President Shabir Ahmad Shah said the upcoming assembly elections in held Jammu and Kashmir are a futile exercise and there is no question of participating in it.
"If the elections are fought for the sake of governance and running the administration, we would not participate in such elections," he said.
Shah, however, said he was not against the democratic process and would not fear contesting polls if they are held for finding out the genuine representatives of the people of the state with whom the government of India would initiate talks for the resolution of the Kashmir issue, daily Kashmir Times reported. He said, he had second round of talks with the members of Kashmir Committee.
Asked to elaborate over the claim of Ram Jethmalani that he succeeded in getting a break through by securing his commitment to participate in the elections, he said, he only expressed his long-standing stance.
When Jethmalani was asked whether Shabir Shah has consented in participating in the forthcoming elections, Jethmalani pleaded not to press for the answer. "I do not want to commit any answer this time, you will hear it from the horse's mouth," he said.
Referring to it, Shah said, he had a cordial meeting with the Kashmir Committee and it made a positive start. "But I do not know what he means by the break through. If I meet the prime minister (Atal Bihari Vajpayee) I will only reiterate my stand," he added.
"If prime minister asks me to contest the election for the sake of governance we will not contest it. But, if he assures that it is a first step towards the resolution of the Kashmir issue and is restricted to the election of genuine representatives to carry forward the process of dialogue, I am ready for it," he said.
Shah said he has already given a nod to the invitation offer from the prime minister and deputy prime minister for the purpose of talks.
Commenting on the upcoming assembly elections, he said, instead of going for such an exercise it was better to extend the six years extension to the Farooq Abdullah government here. "This would have prevented the fresh spate of bloodshed that these elections have come along with," he said.

Kashmir Liberation Cell, August 20, 2002,
http://www.klc.org.pk/klc/feb202/aug-20-5.html

Jethmalani Urges Govt. to Defer Polls

Former Union law minister and chairman Kashmir Committee Ram Jethmalani urged the Union government to postpone the elections and hold talks with the Kashmiri militants, including Hurriyat Conference to sort out the Kashmir imbroglio.
Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Jethmalani said many individual Kashmiri militants were expressing their willingness to join the national mainstream by participating in the elections. He said postponement of polls for some time would facilitate their participation.
Jethmalani said that Kashmir Resolution Front, an organisation of thirteen ex-militant groups, had expressed its willingness to participate in elections and it would be "politically idiotic to snub such elements" by rejecting the demand for postponement of polls.
Stating that the ball was in government's court, he said India would miss a opportunity forever, in case the separatist groups, including Hurriyat Conference, were not invited.
India should tell the world that it did its best to ensure greater participation of people in Kashmir polls and should not give any scope for any excuse for non-participation, he opined.
Jethmalani said that the Election Commission has the right to review the decision as the situation in Kashmir warranted postponement of elections and it would be an error of law to reject postponement of elections on the plea that poll process was set in motion.
He regretted that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee or the Deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani had failed to protect the CEC Lyngdoh from "intemperate and unwarranted attacks" from various quarters in regard to his decision on holding of elections in Gujarat.

The Times of India, August 2, 2002,
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?artid=19906066&sType=1

Four-Phased J&K Polls from September 16: CEC

Chief Election Commissioner James Lyngdoh on Friday announced that assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir would be held in four phases starting September 16.
The entire process would be completed by October 12, Lyngdoh told a press conference here. The dates for the polls are September 16, 24 and October 1, 8.
While notifications for the first phase would be issued on August 22, the same for the subsequent three phases would be on August 31, September 6 and 13, respectively, Lyngdoh added. Votes will be counted on October 10 with results expected by October 12.
The CEC said that 8,000 electronic voting machines (EVM) would be kept in readiness for nearly 7,000 polling booths.
"We have been taking this election more seriously than we have taken any election in India in the past," he said.
Separatists in the state have ruled out participation in the long-mooted poll, while militant groups based in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir have vowed to disrupt it.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission rejected international observers for the J&K polls and said 'one or two' persons from the election commissions of the UK, Australia and Canada could come in their individual capacity and not as observers.
"We are extremely open..." the CEC said, when asked whether the Commission would allow international observers to oversee the polls dismissing the idea in an oblique manner.
Comparing the Election Commission in the country with other such institutions in Australia, Canada and the UK, he said, "One or two might be wanting to come here. But they will not come as observers and we discourage this."
"We believe observing means white man coming and observing what the native is doing," the CEC said, adding, "if somebody wants to come, they can come in their individual capacity and they will not represent these Commissions."
"They are not going to teach us a lesson," Lyngdoh said and added that the Commission in the country enjoyed more authority and powers than any other body in the world.

The Times of India, August 2, 2002,
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?artid=17854785&sType=1

Election Date Set for Kashmir Vote

Election officials in India have pinpointed dates for state legislative elections to be held in Indian-controlled Kashmir. The voting will take place in two phases, during September and October. Officials say elaborate security measures will be made to ensure there is no disruption to the polling.
The State Assembly elections, which many Kashmiri separatist leaders oppose and have claimed will be rigged by the federal government, could help ease tensions between India and Pakistan, both of whom claim the Himalayan province.
New Delhi hopes that a good voter turnout and peaceful and fair process will ease tensions and curb human rights abuses in the northern state, as well as appease estranged Kashmiri political parties and bring them back into the federal fold.
Voter turnout in elections in Kashmir have been poor in the past due to fear of reprisals by the Islamic militants. Meanwhile, at least 20 people have been killed in violence across the disputed region of Kashmir.
Indian police say four Islamic militants and an Indian officer were killed in a gun battle overnight Wednesday in the town of Rajouri. The fighting erupted when gunmen infiltrated a high security residential compound for Indian officials in the town, which is near the so-called Line of Control (LoC) that divides Indian- and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir.
The militants hurled grenades, fired rockets and automatic weapons in the lengthy exchange, police said. Commandos and troops were rushed to the spot and surrounded the house where the terrorists were holed up, the Times of India reported, while residents were evacuated.
Police say that the militants had planned to target top civil and police officials residing in the Deputy Commissioner Complex, the Times reported. The gun battle ended early Thursday, Indian officials said, and the army is searching for any militants who may have escaped. The army said four AK-47 rifles were recovered from the militants.

CNN, August 2, 2002,
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/south/08/02/kashmir/index.html

Kashmir Elections a Drama: Pakistan

Pakistan on Saturday dismissed state elections in Indian-controlled Kashmir beginning next month as a charade which would not give people the choice they wanted in the disputed Himalayan region.
It also rejected a series of conditions set by New Delhi for the resumption of dialogue between the nuclear-armed rivals.
"Regardless of the drama they (the Indians) would like to enact, that is no substitute for giving them (Kashmiris) a choice of joining Pakistan or India," said Maj. Gen. Rashid Qureshi, spokesman for President Pervez Musharraf.
He was referring to state elections in Indian-occupied Kashmir which New Delhi hopes will bolster the legitimacy of its rule.
The country's only Muslim-majority state, Indian Kashmir has been racked by over a decade of separatist bloodshed.
India is particularly keen for a fair and credible election after a widely discredited vote in 1987 turned resentment against Indian rule into a rebellion which continues to this day. But New Delhi suffered a blow when the head of the All Parties Hurriyat Council said it would boycott the poll.
"The Indians have held such farces of elections many times before," Qureshi said, adding that people were forced to the ballot box "at bayonet point" in the earlier vote.
Pakistan seeks implementation of 1948-49 U.N. resolutions for a plebiscite to determine whether Kashmiris wish to join India or Pakistan and says the elections are no substitute. Qureshi said Kashmiris were not yet being offered the choice between India, Pakistan and independence.
India has listed steps it wants Pakistan to take before resuming talks, including stopping infiltration and communication between rebels on both sides of the border and ordering militants in Indian Kashmir to stop their activities.
"They are trying to hint that guidance is given from Pakistani Kashmir to people in Indian-occupied Kashmir," said Qureshi, adding that the charge was untrue.
"Pakistan is not responsible (for violence in Indian Kashmir). Pakistan says nothing is happening along the Line of Control."
He said Musharraf had vowed Pakistan would not be used "for any violence or terrorism within Pakistan and outside Pakistan," although it provided moral support to Kashmiri freedom fighters.

Dawn, August 11, 2002,
http://www.dawn.com/2002/08/11/top12.htm

Voters Complain of 'Missing' Names

With less than a month to go for the first phase of Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, the task of finalising the electoral rolls is yet to be completed. The Election Commission has been flooded with complaints from people who have not been able to find their names in the voters' list. Some of them have voting for the last several decades. In some cases, the names of entire families are missing. Even those who find their names find that their gender has been changed. Problems increase as we go to the remote and rural Assembly segments. Some of the dead voters are yet to be excluded from the voters' list.
The J&K Panthers Party chief, Bhim Singh, says that the "casualness in preparing the electoral rolls may be easily understood from the fact that even the particulars of the Chief Minister and his mother, Begum Akbar Jehan (who passed away recently), have not been entered correctly."

The Hindu, August 25, 2002,
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2002/08/25/stories/2002082503161000.htm

Elections Can't Change Kashmir's History, Says APHC Chief

All Parties Hurriyat Conference chairman Prof Abdul Ghani Bhat has said the elections cannot change the history of the troubled state even if some percentage of voters participated in the poll process.
"It cannot change the mood and attitude of the people and it cannot bring India and Pakistan closer," Prof Bhat told Tribune News Service.
"What I say is based on facts. Many Assembly elections were held in Jammu and Kashmir since 1951 and none of them resolved the Kashmir issue, silenced or satisfied the urges and aspirations of people in Kashmir nor did they stop India and Pakistan from fighting three wars."
Describing the Kashmir Resolution Front (KRF), comprising 13 former pro-freedom outfits and formed to participate in the ensuing Assembly poll as 'paper tiger,' Prof Abdul Gani Bhat said, "the front's participation will not alter the mood of people who are opposed to the elections."
"For a political party to register its presence in the poll battle it must have a network of workers, resources and voters' support." He said the recently floated KRF had 'none,' and "I do not find any reason to believe that the voters will ignore our call for poll boycott," Prof Bhat stressed.
The Hurriyat chairman said, "We have given the boycott call and the spirit of the call has reached every household, he said, adding, "we do not have leaders to see the call is enforced."
He said 40 Hurriyat activists had been arrested and three members of the executive committee - Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mohammad Yasin Malik and Sheikh Aziz Ahmed had been detained.
Commenting on Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah's recent statement that if the dispute had to be resolved through negotiations, Delhi should resume a dialogue with Islamabad instead of the Hurriyat Conference, Prof Bhat said: "We are a party to the dispute and have the right to be involved in parleys."
He said: "A solution hammered out between India and Pakistan in consultation with the representatives of the people of Kashmir can lead to permanent settlement of the dispute."
The Hurriyat chief said: "We had demanded the release of all detainees, end to human rights violation and sending the Indian security forces back to the barracks. The demand was ignored and the deadlock continues."
Asked why did the Hurriyat Conference not accept the challenge of Dr. Abdullah that he would quit and recommend the imposition of Governor's rule if the pro-freedom conglomerate agreed to contest the elections, Prof Bhat said: "We have decided not to participate in the poll process because we are convinced that the Assembly poll will not result in the settlement of the Kashmir dispute. Should we contest the poll, simply to win power, over the bodies of 50,000 Kashmiris who have been martyred during the past 13years of Jehad?" he asked.

Kashmir Liberation Cell, August 27, 2002,
http://www.klc.org.pk/klc/feb202/aug-27-2.html

India's Electoral Process in Question (Excerpts)

Just at the time when India is coming under international pressure to allow observers to watch the upcoming election in Kashmir, the government finds itself involved in controversies which cast doubts on the country's own polling processes. India takes pride in its history, more than fifty years now, of holding elections.
Although prepared to send Indian observers to elections in other countries, it has told the United States and Britain that it doesn't need any lessons in elections itself and will not allow foreign observers to watch the Kashmir polling, which starts next month. But by no means are Kashmiris confident that the election in their state will be free and fair.
They fear it will just rubber stamp the present arrangement under which the National Conference, the party of the Abdullah dynasty which dominates politics in Kashmir, governs the state and supports the coalition government in New Delhi. The only uncertainty, they feel, is whether the present Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, will hand the crown to his charismatic son Omar.
Some smaller parties are refusing to take part in the election and those that are participating have asked that Abdullah's government be dissolved so that the National Conference is not in a position to misuse power during the campaign or polling.
That has been rejected by the Central government. So has the request by the smaller parties for the election to be postponed to give them time to re-establish their presence.

Mark Tully, CNN, August 27, 2002,
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/south/08/27/tully.india/index.html

APHC Reiterates Rejection of Election Ploy

The All Parties Hurriyat Conference at a meeting of its Executive Council in Srinagar Tuesday reiterated that the forthcoming election drama in occupied Kashmir was meaningless and provided no solution to Kashmir problem.
The meeting was presided over by APHC Chairman, Professor Abdul Ghani Bhat. The meeting was unanimously of the view that Kashmiris were not fighting for forming governments but for shaping their future destiny. Elections in the past could not deliver anything nor could do so in future.

Kashmir Liberation Cell, August 28, 2002,
http://www.klc.org.pk/klc/feb202/aug-28-3.html

New Delhi-Based Kashmir Committee Warns Against Election Drama

In a dramatic development, new Delhi-based Kashmir Committee, headed by former Indian Law Minister, Ram Jethmalani made an appeal to people of Kashmir to be aware of election drama enacted by National Conference in collusion with BJP to throttle the peace process and durable solution the Kashmir problem.
Kashmir Committee observed that elections were being forced upon the state before the commencement of dialogue with Kashmiri leadership and other political groups. The Committee has de-linked fake elections from the ongoing process of talks for permanent solution, daily 'Greater Kashmir' quoting sources close to Committee said.
The Chairman, Kashmir Committee on the conclusion of three-day visit to Srinagar had said that dialogue process would go on independent of the course and outcome of elections. This election is sought to be held for the purpose of electing a government at the end of six years term and in no way aimed at electing the true representatives who would be engaged for a comprehensive dialogue for hammering out a permanent and durable solution which can allow all the sections of J&K to live in peace and prosperity.
Chairman, Ram Jethmalani has asked Indian government to ensure that it would enter into a serious dialogue with the elected representatives of the state to discuss all the issues pertaining to the future of the state. The Committee is scheduled to receive Shabbir Shah and his team for comprehensive negotiations here on Aug 29. The Hurriyat leaders are expected to meet Kashmir Committee members early next week in pursuit of the mutually agreed agenda for permanent solution of Kashmir. This was decided at the in-house meeting of Committee at New Delhi, held as a precursor for the ensuing dialogue with the Kashmiri leadership. It is also expected that the representatives of migrant Kashmir Pandit community would also interface with Kashmiri leadership here to evolve a broad secular agenda and ensure their peaceful and dignified return to the valley.

Kashmir Liberation Cell, August 28, 2002,
http://www.klc.org.pk/klc/feb202/aug-28-6.html

APHC Chief Wants Polls Linked with Kashmir Resolution

The Hurriyat Conference indicated a significant shift in its stand, announcing its willingness to participate in elections provided New Delhi and international community guarantee that the polls would be "linked to the resolution of the Kashmir dispute."
Hurriyat chairman Prof Abdul Ghani Bhat and former chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq made this announcement to the media persons at the end of a meeting of the seven-member executive council lasting over four hours. Asked whether they felt that prime minister Atal Behari
Vajpayee was sincere in his endeavour, Prof Bhat said they were not pessimists and were seeing a ray of hope that could lead to the permanent solution to Kashmir issue.
Giving details about the executive meeting, Hurriyat chairman said the executive council agreed to hold the second round of discussions in New Delhi with Kashmir Committee. He said the composition of the team would be decided later. Prof Bhat said the date for meeting would also be finalized within two or three days.
Today's announcement was materially different from the Hurriyat's recent stand that they would contest elections only if a mechanism for the democratic exercise was evolved by India, Pakistan and the people of Kashmir. There was no mention of this condition today. The watered down condition only sought the Centre's open assurance on enlarged implications of this assembly poll.
Bhat and Mirwaiz asserted that "they want an assurance particularly from the prime minister that the elections would be linked to the resolution of Kashmir dispute."
Shift in the Hurriyat's stand is being ascribed to mounting international pressure on the Hurriyat to contest the assembly polls. Yesterday, Lisa Curtis, senior Asian affairs advisor to the Bush administration and Sheetal Patel, an official of U.S. embassy impressed upon the separatists not to miss the opportunity offered by the assembly polls.
Prof Bhat said his conglomerate was neither shying away from polls nor were they afraid of it. But if polls were held only for running the administration, the Hurriyat would not be part of that process, he said.
"We are ready to take the road that leads to the resolution of Kashmir issue. We will talk to all those people who will help us in finding the resolution of Kashmir issue. If elections are linked to the solution and we are given guarantee by New Delhi and international community, we will consider the participation," said former Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.
Adding, Mirwaiz said they do not want window dressing to Kashmir issue, but a durable, permanent and lasting solution to the problem, which has eaten the vitals of India and Pakistan. He said they were friends of India and Pakistan and yearns for their prosperity.
Mirwaiz, however, clarified that Hurriyat does not receive dictates from Pakistan but they speak the language of the people of Kashmir. "We do not receive dictates from Pakistan. We speak on behalf of people of the state. A vicious propaganda has been launched in which an impression is being given that we are working on the behest of Pakistan, which is utterly wrong," he said Former Hurriyat chairman said they would be launching a public contact programme from Friday to take the people into confidence. Mirwaiz said they would be meeting people in mosques, shrines and other religious places to seek their opinion on Hurriyat decisions.
Asked if Hurriyat plans to launch an anti-election campaign. Prof Bhat said their non-participation in the polls is itself an election boycott. He said they would have to weigh all options before deciding over this issue.
"Our three senior executive committee members Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mohammad Yasin Malik and Sheikh Abdul Aziz are behind bars. Forty of our other colleagues are languishing in jails. Government do not allow the assembly of people. Whenever we try to take out a rally, they beat us black and blue. These things have to be taken into account before deciding over the anti-election campaign," he said.

The Kashmir Times, August 28, 2002,
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?artid=20407875&sType=1

Kashmir International Issue: Omar Abdullah

In an apparent policy shift, Indian Minister of State for External Affairs Omar Abdullah has said that Kashmir is an international issue as the international community thinks it may result in a major nuclear clash between India and Pakistan.
He said that Kashmir issue has to be resolved by India and Pakistan and polls are not its solution. However, he said that participation of All Parties Hurriyat Conference could add credibility to the poll process.
Omar Abdullah who has just been appointed chief of the pro-Indian political party of Jammu and Kashmir, National Conference, told Indian daily The Hindustan Times, "We might not like it but it is an international issue. The international community feels that Indo-Pak tensions on Kashmir could flare up into a nuclear clash. They consider Kashmir a nuclear flashpoint."
However, the Minister also said that only this, elections in Jammu and Kashmir has also become an international issue. He said that the election has "unnecessarily brought much international attention." He termed this internationalisation of the polls as 'unwarranted.'
He also conceded that polls in Jammu and Kashmir would not solve Kashmir issue, they would decide who would take reign of the state.
He categorically stated "This election is not about the future of Jammu and Kashmir but about the future of the government. What they call as the 'Kashmir problem' is for Delhi and Islamabad to resolve." Omar Abdullah who is leading his party for the coming polls in Jammu and Kashmir if 'elected' would be youngest Chief Minister of the State.
He says that militancy is the biggest challenge for the poll process and claims that efforts are being made to hold free and fair elections in J&K.
"But the guns are all around and they are being used to scare people away, to prevent them from exercising their legitimate right to vote. We are ready for any debate on issues concerning the state. But we don't have an answer to the gun. That answer has to come from security forces," he said.

Kashmir Liberation Cell, August 29, 2002,
http://www.klc.org.pk/klc/feb202/aug-29-4.html

Talks with Separatists to Continue After Polls: PM

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Thursday assured the Kashmir Committee that the dialogue process to find a long-term solution to the decade-old problem of the state would continue even after the Assembly elections.
Shortly after the meeting with the Prime Minister, the Committee Chairman Ram Jethmalani told reporters "Prime minister has assured us that government will continue the talks with all elements including the elected representatives after the polls."
Briefing about the hour-long meeting with the Prime Minister which was also attended by eminent journalists and members of the committee - Dileep Padgaonkar and M.J. Akbar, Jethmalani said the Prime Minister hoped that further steps would be taken by the Committee to ensure participation of those, who were not ready to take part in the elections.
The Prime Minister expressed hope that those who were still unwilling to participate in the elections would come up and take part in the ensuing elections, Jethmalani said, minutes before beginning the second round of talks with separatist leader Shabir Shah.
Vajpayee expressed happiness over the Committee's efforts in ensuring participation of many elements who were hitherto unwilling to join the poll process, the former Law Minister said.

The Indian Express, August 30, 2002,
http://www.expressindia.com/kashmir/full_story.php?content_id=14267&type=ei

Hold J&K Polls on Time

The electoral process is an important component of democratic practice, though by no means the only touchstone of its viability. More important is the rule of law underlying the principle of democracy and the way that law is practiced. A postponement of elections in J&K on less than justifiable reasons cannot be accepted as sufficient logic for the CEC to change the duly notified constitutional process. The argument that various sections of the political spectrum, including possibly some separatist groups, would like the postponement of the election schedule already announced by the CEC appears motivated by narrow political considerations. This is also where there is a crucial difference between Gujarat and J&K which indicates the gap between democratic propriety and the limited political goals of a chief minister intent on pushing for elections. The Election Commission, quite rightly, is not prepared to announce a schedule in accordance with Narendra Modi's agenda.
A postponement of elections in J&K at this stage, however, would have far reaching consequences which New Delhi would do well to weigh very carefully. Allowing more time for either the interlocutors of the attempt at rapprochement, or to accede to the demands of various groups, would not necessarily be more productive or produce positive results. Pakistan would want nothing better than the excuse to interpret this as proof of what General Musharraf has already described a 'farcical' process. Islamabad has been known to disrupt the political-democratic processes in the state through the pursuit of cross-border terrorism. Demands for postponement by various political groups would only tend to provide the soft route to undermine the credibility of the elections. It would be reasonable to expect that Pakistan would project the postponement as a sign of weakness, or even of fear on our part to conduct free and fair elections. This would also provide a boost to the jehadi groups who are the only ones to lose from the electoral process.
The majority party in the state has not sought any postponement. All other groups have, or should have, known that elections would be due in September this year as per the constitutional process, and they should have been prepared for it. In fact the idea of postponement seems to have emerged only after Ram Jethmalani's mission to the state. But the detailed schedule for J&K elections has already been promulgated, and it would be a grave mistake to alter this at this late stage without some overwhelming rationale in support of that change. The only one that could possibly fall in that category is a firm commitment by the All Party Hurriyat Conference to take part in the election process and if it was to request for some time to prepare for the polls. But it is also clear that the Hurriyat will avoid a serious commitment to the elections for fear of losing Islamabad's support.

The Indian Express, Editorial, August 30, 2002,
http://www.expressindia.com/kashmir/full_story.php?content_id=7931

No Postponement, No Talks with Hurriyat: Advani

In a toughening of stand, deputy prime minister L.K. Advani today virtually ruled out any talks with the Hurriyat or the imposition of governor's rule or postponement of the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, asserting that the Centre would now talk only with elected representatives from the state.
The statement given in an interview with a private television channel practically reverses a proposal to hold talks with the Hurriyat which has declined to participate in the coming elections.
Advani had recently offered to talk with the Hurriyat on their participation in the elections. Advani charged the Hurriyat with following the dictates of Pakistan and said Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf's August 14 address, in which he denounced the J&K elections as 'farcical,' was a clear message to 'saner elements' not to participate.
"Their participation had always been in doubt and the sections inclined to participate, were deterred after Hurriyat leader Abdul Ghani Lone's assassination - Even so many citizens wanted to participate but president Musharraf's statement denouncing the Jammu and Kashmir elections, was a clear message given to those in the Hurriyat not to participate. The Hurriyat's decision was not a great surprise," he said.
Asserting that the imposition of governor's rule in the state was entirely up to the state government, he said the centre would not impose anything on Jammu and Kashmir. Instead, the government was keen on ensuring free and fair elections.
"The government of India is certainly keen on not only holding free and fair elections in Jammu and Kashmir, but also on ensuring that they seem to be so," he added.

The Times of India, August 30, 2002,
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?artid=19741459&sType=1

Shabir Shah Says 'No' to Polls

The Kashmir Committee-centric initiative to involve the separatist camp in next month's Assembly elections collapsed today with the leader of the Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party, Shabir Shah, putting forth pre-conditions which simply cannot be met, even if the Centre was inclined to concede Mr. Shah's stipulations.
Even though after a marathon session with the Kashmir Committee, headed by the former Union Law Minister, Ram Jethmalani, Mr. Shah had "in principle agreed to participate in the elections," he later made it clear that there was no question of his party's participation in the next month's exercise.
The Kashmir Committee apparently endorsed Mr. Shah's stand that "a number of comprehensive confidence-building measures needed to be taken to ensure participation in such free, fair and meaningful elections."
A joint statement issued by the two sides lists these confidence building-measures: The release of those who have been illegally/unfairly jailed; a honourable and dignified return of migrants; greater accountability of the Special Operation Group and other anti-insurgency groups; end to custodial killings; a speedy trial of those jailed for petty offences; constitution of a commission to probe custodial killings and disappearance of persons; and, facilitation of an intra-Kashmir dialogue. Except for the 'Return of the Migrants' (read the Kashmiri Pandits), these measures have figured in almost everybody's list of potential 'confidence-building measures.' Each of these has an appeal of its own, which the administrators find difficult to operationalise and accept.
The only concession that the Kashmir Committee appears to have secured from the JKDFP is a reiteration that "it was never against such a participation (in the election) since it has always been committed to democratic process. It wholeheartedly agrees with the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, that elections alone can identify the true representatives of the people of the State for a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue." The Shabir Shah side also conceded that "violence as a principle or a strategy has no role in the resolution of any problem anywhere in the world including the Kashmir problem."
Whatever comfort this affirmation of an intent of peaceful means may provide, there is a sense of disappointment in the Kashmir Committee that its exertions have not moved Mr. Shah. As it is, the committee was bitter that the Centre was unwilling to heed its advice to postpone the Assembly elections.
Mr. Jethmalani failed to arrange a meeting between Mr. Vajpayee and Mr. Shah. The prime ministerial refusal was built into the uncertainty that dogged the Committee; its status or the nature of patronage it enjoyed from the Vajpayee Government has never been clarified, even though Mr. Shah today claimed that the committee had been "authorised by none other than the Deputy Prime Minister himself."
Realising that the Jethmalani Committee had been rendered irrelevant as far as the next month's elections were concerned, Mr. Shah decided to widen his consultation process. Along with the Kashmir Committee convener, Ashok Bhan, he called on the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, and the senior Congress leader, Manmohan Singh.
Mr. Shah is believed to have conveyed to Ms. Gandhi that his party is committed to a "secular India, and not to the Sangh Parivar India." He is likely to meet other secular leaders. "Yes, I will be meeting Mulayam Singh Yadav and other leaders with secular credentials," he told reporters after meeting Ms. Gandhi. Later in the evening, Mr. Shah had an hour-long interaction with the Samajwadi Party leader, Mr. Yadav.
The JKDFP leader also sought to craft a secular/communal context to his quest when he noted that he would not be meeting the BJP leaders.
"This party has shown its real face. I thought there was a ray of hope in the party by the presence of Mr. Vajpayee but that too seems to be dwindling now," he said. The Kashmir Committee itself is likely to have an audience with the Congress president. The meeting has been agreed upon after considerable behind-the-scene discussions within the AICC establishment.

Harish Khare, August 31, 2002,
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2002/08/31/stories/2002083105230100.htm

State BJP Divided Over Electoral Alliance with Jammu State Morcha

With only a fortnight to go for the first phase of Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir, the state unit of Bharatiya Janata Party is a divided house over the issue of seats adjustment with the Jammu State Morcha (JSM).
A group led by Union Minister Chaman Lal Gupta has openly come against the alliance, asking the party high command to severe ties with the Morcha. A secret meeting of this faction was held in Jammu on Saturday night, which was attended by BJP Legislature Party leader Shiv Charan Gupta and six other leaders.
Majority of the participants, who also happened to be the members of the party's State Election Committee, decided to urge the high command to severe ties if the Morcha insisted on contesting 23 seats, sources said.
"We think nothing should be done at the cost of BJP. There is great resentment in the party cadres on this issue," sources quoted BJP leaders as having said at the meeting.
The leaders were of the opinion that the Morcha lacked base at the grass-root level. MLA Hans Raj Dogra, a close associate of Gupta, reportedly asserted that if the party gave away its seats to the Morcha BJP cadre would be frustrated.
Another senior BJP leader, Chander Mohan Sharma has also reiterated the demand, pointing out that only six seats were to be given to the Morcha as per their electoral understanding.
The Morcha has been demanding 23 seats, including those in Jammu city where BJP has won during the 1996 Assembly polls. "We are a cadre based party and have a base in the people. What does Morcha have?" Sharma questioned.
The other BJP faction, led by state president D.K. Kotwal is in favour of the alliance. "Both (BJP and Morcha) are opposed to discrimination of the Jammu region. BJP has extended support to Morcha on this issue. There is no question of breaking ties with it," said Kotwal.
The infighting came to the fore when leaders of the Gupta faction, including district BJP president Sat Paul Grover and state vice-president Chander Mohan Sharma, talked to a selective group of journalists at the party office on Sunday.
They openly demanded that ties be broken with the JSM as it has no base among the masses. It seems the revolt is more an issue of survival: the JSM has already announced that it would field candidates from both Jammu-East and Jammu-West. If these seats are given to JSM, BJP's sitting MLAs, Ashok Khajuria and Hans Raj Dogra, will find themselves redundant.
When contacted JSM Chairman Sri Kumar said that JSM had gained tremendous public support after its announcement to take part in the elections and the BJP leaders should accept this.

The Indian Express, Rakesh Rocky, September 1, 2002,
http://www.expressindia.com/kashmir/full_story.php?content_id=8676

JJSF not to Participate in J&K Polls

Jammu Joint Student Front (JJSF), an organisation of students advocating trifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir, today decided to stay away from the coming assembly elections saying its efforts to get all like-minded parties together on the statehood issue has proved futile.
"We had tried to get all like-minded political, social and trade organisations on a common platform but our efforts in this context proved futile and there after JJSF has decided to stay away from participation in assembly polls," JJSF President Rajinder Singh Jamwal told reporters here.
JJSF, one of most active organisations spearheading the statehood movement, warned people to guard against politicians and organisations who have jumped into the fray on the plank of statehood movement to fulfil their vested interests.
"Communal forces have entered into the separate statehood movement just three months before polls," he said adding "I think all this is done at the behest of their masters in Delhi as they knew that BJP had lost their mandate in the state."

Outlook India, September 2, 2002,
http://www.outlookindia.com/pti_news.asp?id=80435

Centre will have to Restore J-K Autonomy: Omar

Striking the autonomy cord again, National Conference president Omar Abdullah on Wednesday said the Centre would be compelled to restore autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir.
Addressing a series of rallies in Srinagar, Omar said the very fact that a BJP-led government at the Centre has initiated a dialogue with the state government on the issue of autonomy is a big leap towards the goal.
Omar, who led a procession of several boats in the famous Dal Lake, said his party had not been demanding anything which went against the Constitution. "The day is not far when the central government will be compelled to restore the autonomy of the state," he said.
The Centre, though late, has realised this. If our government is voted back to power, we will ensure that the dream and aspirations of the people come true, said Omar, who is also Minister of State for External Affairs. The Centre had appointed former Union minister Arun Jaitley to hold talks with the state government for further devolution of powers. He had so far held two rounds of talks with Ghulam Mohammed Shah, the senior most ministers in the Farooq Abdullah's Cabinet.
During his election rallies, Omar also promised efforts to make employment process more transparent, proper health care and other facilities.

The Indian Express, Kashmir Live, Assembly Poll 2002,
http://www.expressindia.com/kashmir/full_story.php?content_id=14870&type=ei

NC Worried as Omar Rally Joins List of Flop Shows

Omar Abdullah was in for a shock today as an election rally he addressed in Baramulla today drew a fraction of the crowd that the National Conference (NC) had been promising it would. While the party was expecting almost 10,000 people, the numbers who finally came could not have been more than 200. Even the fact that this was the first such rally of these elections in the region did not attract crowds to the venue.
The party has fielded an influential businessman, Jan Mohammad Kachroo, against Supreme Court lawyer and senior Peoples' Democratic Party leader Muzaffar Hussain Beigh here. And today's rally was a clear indication of the NC's lack of support in the area. Party sources admit that they can't blame the anti-incumbency wave alone, and that the NC is paying a heavy price for the factionalism in its unit plus the non-performance of its sitting MLA. Two senior NC leaders, Works Minister Ali Mohammad Sagar and MP Abdul Rashid Saheen, did not speak at the meeting.
An NC leader admitted that the public response to their rallies in most parts of Baramulla has been contrary to expectations. The party is facing tough fights in Gulmarg, Sangrama, Rafiabad, Banidipore and Sonawari constituencies. In fact, the response to yesterday's meeting at the NC's stronghold and border town Uri was also disappointing. Though around 3,000 people participated, the party was expecting up to 15,000. The NC is already facing a tough time in the frontier Kupwara district, where all its five candidates are fighting a difficult battle after the People's Conference fielded its "proxy candidates."
Meanwhile, the People's Democratic Party today got a shot in the arm after the son of slain legislator Mir Mustafa, Javid Mustafa, joined the party. Javid will reportedly be contesting on a PDP ticket from Chadoora, a constituency his father represented for 10 years.

The Indian Express, September 3, 2002,
http://www.expressindia.com/kashmir/full_story.php?content_id=8809

Hurriyat Launches Anti-Poll Campaign

A day after averting a possible split over 'proxy' candidates of Peoples Conference being in the fray, Hurriyat Conference on Tuesday launched anti-election campaign in Jammu and Kashmir asking the people to reject the poll process and continue their struggle for right of self-determination.
"The so-called elections cannot be an alternative to the right of self-determination and the people should reject the frivolous elections, aimed at formation of a government, and remove all impediments in the way of the ongoing struggle for the cause of their future," senior Hurriyat executive member Maulana Mohammad Abbas Ansari told a public meeting at Nabadnara in Bdgam district.
This was the first public meeting of the conglomerate of 23 separatist parties in the recent past. Ansari asked people to remain united and strong and thwart any attempt to weaken and malign the Hurriyat which he said was their representative body.
He said, "Kashmir issue has attained importance at the international level and it is being viewed and discussed very seriously. As such people are duty-bound to foil attempts of those who betray the blood of martyrs."

The Indian Express,
http://www.expressindia.com/kashmir/full_story.php?content_id=14392&type=ei

Whose Mistakes are these?

When will the prime minister stop treating every public platform as if it were a mushaira? First we had insaniyat ke daire mein as the enunciation of his goal, as if the one thing absent from our Constitution is insaniyat (humanity). Confronted with this piece of nonsense, I asked in Parliament whether the PM was a statesman or a qawwal? Home Minister Advani got all hot under the collar at my turn of phrase, but we are still to be told what is this insaniyat which we are groping towards. Now, from the ramparts of the Red Fort, the PM has pleaded for everyone to forget the 'mistakes of the past.' But which, exactly, are these mistakes? The mistakes of the last six years that Farooq Abdullah has been chief minister? Or the mistakes of the past four years that Vajpayee has been PM? Or the mistakes of the previous five decades? Or all three? And, in any case, what are these 'mistakes' we are required to forget?
Is the biggest mistake of the past 'rigged' elections? The BJP/NDA are at one with Pakistan in regarding past elections in J&K as rigged. They only differ on the elections of 1977, which the Pakistanis say were as 'rigged' as the rest, but the BJP/NDA believes were 'clean.' If the 1977 elections were the only 'free and fair' elections ever held in J&K, were the elections which set up the J&K constituent assembly in 1951 a 'mistake'? Or does the mistake lie in 1987 - when Farooq Abdullah left the Vajapyee/Fernandes lobby quite distraught by tying up with Rajiv Gandhi? In which case, Vajpayee must answer the question Rajiv Gandhi put to the BJP-sponsored governor of J&K: how many seats did Jagmohan think were 'rigged' in the J&K elections of 1987? Sixteen, replied the governor. Well, even if all 16 had been countermanded, the National Conference/Congress would still have had a huge majority, replied Rajiv.
The much-loathed Farooq Abdullah of 1987 is now the much-beloved ally of the BJP. In 1996, he won all the seats alleged to have been rigged in 1987. So, in the view of the BJP/NDA, is the National Conference illegitimately in power for the last six years? Is that a 'mistake' the PM would like the voters of J&K to forget?
If, on the other hand, the mistake lies in not getting the Hurriyat and other disaffected elements into the electoral ring, then where does that mistake lie? Surely in Farooq Abdullah and Atal Behari Vajapyee having failed to get an inclusive broad spectrum dialogue going with all concerned. Indeed, far from having concerted efforts within the NDA coalition, specifically between the National Conference and the BJP, to jointly chart a common course, Vajpayee has repeatedly gone behind Farooq's back to deal with not only the Hurriyat but even the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen. Farooq has retaliated by disinterring dead demands - not as serious demands but to get his own back on Vajpayee. The confusion is now worse confounded because the PM talks of autonomy while his deputy talks of 'devolution.' How can anyone, even the National Conference and their NDA partners, know what is on the agenda if the PM and the deputy PM, not to mention their resident Scarlet Pimpernel, the convenor of the NDA, work at such cross-purposes? The PM now says he will talk to everyone he failed to talk to once they get elected. But surely it was his mistake to have neglected for the past four years the National Conference who had got elected to concentrate on everyone else in J&K who had failed to get elected!
The BJP-led NDA has averaged 1.5 interlocutors a year, starting with R.K. Mishra, going on to Governor Saxena, then K.C. Pant, then a pause for two bureaucrats, A.S. Dulat and Wajahat Habibullah, then Arun Jaitley, before he got grounded and, at latest count, the high-flying Ram Jethmalani who has now been grounded. Not one of them got anywhere. For the good reason that the hopelessly divided NA-BJP-RSS-PM/deputy PM could not agree among themselves on where they wanted the interlocutors to take them. It is the failure over the six years of Farooq and the four years of Vajpayee to kick-start a comprehensive dialogue with all sections of public opinion and all regions of the state which is the biggest mistake of all. Far from forgetting it, we should be reminding everyone of it so that the biggest mistake of the past six/four years is not further compounded by a vote for the same lot.
The other mistake which none should forget - or be allowed to forget - is Farooq Abdullah reneging on his six-year old promise to resettle the Pandits who wish to return to their homes in the Valley. Did Vajpayee or Farooq Abdullah make even a token gesture, at least a tentative beginning, towards restoring the Valley to the Pandits? If not, why should any Pandit, any Kashmiri, indeed, any Indian citizen, be encouraged to 'forget' this betrayal?
And what of trifurcation? Does Vajpayee, the proud swayam sevak, regard the trifurcation proposal of his sponsors as a mistake to be forgotten or as a solution to be endorsed? He claims not to have endorsed trifurcation, but is he going to be consistent in rejecting the RSS line? After all, he succumbed to the RSS between his speech at the Shah Alam camp in Ahmedabad and his notorious speech in Goa? How can any J&K voter trust the 'secularism' of a PM who has had so little to show by way of rectifying his party's 'mistakes' in Gujarat? Indeed, can anyone blame the Kashmiris for fearing that the mindset which insisted on Jagmohan for governor will, after Narendra Modi's defeat in Gujarat, not perhaps suggest Modi for governor in J&K?

Mani Shankar Aiyar, The Indian Express,
http://www.expressindia.com/kashmir/full_story.php?content_id=7934

Additional Paramilitary Forces Rushed to J&K

In a bid to instil a sense of security in the inhabitants and to minimise militants' plans to disrupt the polls, over 440 additional companies of paramilitary forces have been rushed to Jammu and Kashmir for four-phased Assembly elections starting from September 16.
These paramilitary troops comprising Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Punjab Armed Police (PAP) arrived in batches from various parts of the country, official sources told PTI on Wednesday.
They said 300 of such companies have been sent to the Kashmir valley and Ladakh division and the remaining have been stationed in Jammu division for deployment at different places in first and second phase of polling.
Many of these companies were also in the process of deployment in the districts of Jammu, Kathua, Srinagar and Badgam where elections are to be held in the second phase on September 24, they said.
The Special Director General of BSF, RS Aggrawal, is the coordinating officer for these paramilitary forces in Jammu and Kashmir during the elections, the sources said, adding Aggrawal has already been camping in summer capital of Srinagar to monitor the movement and deployment of the forces.
Special control rooms have been set up in Srinagar and Jammu to monitor the deployment and make arrangements for boarding and lodging of these troops.
After the elections in first two phases, most of these companies would be rushed to areas in the Valley and Jammu where third phase of polling will take place on October One.
The security forces would be later deployed in militancy infested Doda district in the fourth and concluding round of elections on October eight, the sources said.
Doda, the third largest in terms of the area after Leh and Kargil, which touches Anantnag district in Kashmir and also bordered by Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh, has a total electorate of 388,519, they said, adding that all most all polling stations were sensitive in the district having seven assembly segments.

The Hindustan Times, September 4, 2002,
http://147.208.132.202/news/181_58276,0008.htm

The Issues, the Players

The issues are the same but some faces are new. As a third generation Abdullah ascends the National Conference throne, Elections 2002 in Jammu and Kashmir are set to be unlike any other. Perhaps, a more representative process.
Political observers expect the presence of foreign media and the glare of the international community at large to ensure that the September elections will also see the least rigging ever.
"This is the right time to restart the political process. People have witnessed a phase in the 1990s when there was no political process. It resulted in chaos. They have realised that even a sham democracy is better than anarchy," says Kashmir expert Riaz Punjabi.
Punjabi says separatists sitting on the fence will lose out if they miss this opportunity to participate. "Peace talks are an ongoing process, sometimes slow, other times intense. Let us not tie up the two issues. They should contest now and if they establish their representative credibility, all the better for them. If the dialogue process ends two or three years from now, they can't just go ahead and dissolve the Assembly then."
With only a few weeks before the elections, the situation is still fluid. The Centre, through the Kashmir Committee under Ram Jethmalani, has brought separatists to the negotiating table. It seems a matter of time before they agree to join the political process. Separatist leader Shabir Shah is already talking elections. There is new blood not only at the helm of National Conference affairs, but also in the Hurriyat, with assassinated leader Abdul Ghani Lone's sons Sajjad and Bilal taking over from their father. With battle lines being defined, major players are fast getting their act together.
National Conference: It is official now. The NC will contest the elections under the 32-year-old Omar Abdullah with father Farooq Abdullah headed to Parliament. The party has won all Assembly elections fought in Jammu and Kashmir post-Independence and winning this one too is crucial. Omar will contest as the party's chief ministerial candidate from the Ganderbal constituency, which has been Abdullah territory since 1975. Farooq has won thrice from Ganderbal.
The father-son duo would like to be seen as taking on the establishment now that elections are near. Omar, ever since he took over the party reins, has scarcely spoken in the voice of a Central minister. From the moment he was anointed, he has joined issue with the Centre for its handling of the Kashmir issue, at the core being the autonomy issue which the party rode to power the last time around in 1996.
For the NC it could be a matter of survival. The family has internationally been the face of political Kashmir and its indubitable clout in the Valley has helped it secure a foothold in national politics. But there have been accusations in every election of mass rigging by the NC and the party could face a backlash if more and more separatists join the fray in disregard to the Hurriyat decision to boycott the elections.
"The chances of the National Conference are good. But it will be tougher than last time, since it is more difficult to fight elections when in you are in power," says Omar Abdullah.
All-Parties Hurriyat Conference: The 23-member coalition of separatist groups is clear on one thing: elections as such are not important, a solution to the Kashmir issue is. It has said before that if there is "enough guarantee that the process will be the first step towards a dialogue process leading to resolution of the Kashmir issue," it can consider contesting elections.
The Hurriyat has been demanding a trilateral dialogue to solve the Kashmir dispute. It has already lost a top leader and moderate Abdul Ghani Lone, who was assassinated in the run-up to the polls in a setback to the dialogue process. The Hurriyat also believes free and fair elections are not possible under the NC regime. As of now, it has said it will not participate in the elections.
But that does not seem to be the final word from those quarters. For the conglomerate, riven as it is with factionalism and differences of opinions between hardliners and moderates, is even now unravelling as individuals are quitting to fight elections as independents. Political observers say many in the coalition are now torn, realising they have to prove their representative character and also fearing that they may be summarily dumped by Pakistan. A Hurriyat executive council meeting on Monday may again see a new turn of events.
"As of now the Hurriyat will not participate in the elections. But it is not opposed to the electoral process if it is part of the entire process of dialogue for a negotiated settlement to the Kashmir problem," says Hurriyat spokesman in Delhi A. M. Bandey.
The Independents: Ghulam Mohiuddin Sofi may be a trendsetter of sorts. The senior leader of the People's Conference - one of the main components of the Hurriyat - insists his decision to contest the elections stems from slain leader Lone's vision. Sofi quit the Hurriyat to file his nomination for the Handwara Assembly seat this week.
Four other key leaders of the People's Conference have followed and are contesting as independent candidates across north Kashmir.
Also joining the political process are surrendered Hizbul Mujahideen commander Imran Rahi and a former Jamaat-e-Islami functionary Abdul Khaliq Parray alias Haneef, who have filed their nomination papers from Kupwara and Sonawari respectively.
More are expected to follow. The mass appeal is big. When Sofi filed his nomination papers from Handwara, a crowd of 15,000 cheered. Political watchers admit that if 10 such people join the fray that could be 10 sure-shot seats for them if rigging is minimised.
The move by Sofi and his ilk has the Hurriyat scrambling to save face, with leaders talking in different voices.
"This is their (the Centre's) last chance to restore our confidence in the electoral process. If they allow the NC to rig these polls, then everything will turn into ashes," says Ghulam Mohiuddin Sofi.
Congress: The national party which ruled India for over 40 years has a few areas of influence in Jammu and Kashmir. Almost decimated in the state through its propping up of Farooq, subsequent Congress regimes at the Centre failed to stem the rot in the state.
For the elections, the party is attempting to regroup and marshal its resources under Ghulam Nabi Azad, who the party feels has vitalised party cadres lying dormant. In 1996, say party leaders, faulty ticket distribution and the large-scale rigging saw the party fare badly.
The Congress has just six seats in the J&K Assembly. This time the party has been proactive and rather optimistically hopes to get about 27 seats. The party feels it will perform well in Jammu, Udhampur, Kathua, Doda, Rajouri and Poonch, and is aiming to swing the BJP's support base in these regions. The party wants Governor's rule in J&K before the elections to ensure fair polls.
"If Congress had been at the helm at the Centre now, the process of bringing the separatists back into the mainstream would have been a more successful affair.
The Congress is on a comeback trail. These elections will definitely mark its revival in the state," says Satyajit Gaekwad, who looks after J&K affairs in the Congress.
BJP and RSS-supported outfits: The BJP is targetting its traditional constituency, the Jammu region. The party will have seat adjustment with the Jammu State Morcha, a group of smaller parties that are demanding separate statehood for Jammu. The RSS in a resolution has made the same demand, and Sangh cadres will actively assist the morcha in electioneering.
Party leaders are quick to point out that the BJP differs on the issue. While it supports the need to address the deep-rooted feeling of discrimination and neglect of the people in the region it's proposed mechanism is different. The BJP has suggested setting up of regional councils.
However, since there is no dispute on the basic outstanding complaint of the region, the BJP believes it would be prudent not to divide votes. Hence the understanding that it will not put up candidates where the morcha will and vice versa.
The party will also contest seats in the Valley, where it is looking for similar understanding with groups and formations which have candidates to defeat National Conference or Congress nominees.
Planning its campaign with care, the BJP has picked Kashmiri Pandits who have migrated to Jammu and also Delhi to fight elections in the Valley, apart from local Muslim candidates. It hopes to better its performance of 8 seats in the outgoing Assembly.
"We have good appeal in Jammu. But the objective is to avoid division of votes. The Congress and the NC, who have ruled the state, are responsible for the discontent among the people. Those who stand to end this discrimination should join hands," says O. P. Kohli, in charge of J&K affairs, BJP.
The others: There are smaller players with pockets of influence in Kashmir. The BSP, with a following among the Muslims, has four seats in the present Assembly.
There is also the People's Democratic Party led by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Bhim Singhs Panthers Party. Even the CPM has a seat in the 87-member Assembly.

The Times of India, Nilanjana Bhaduri Jha, September 4, 2002,
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=20960910

Omar Admits: Toughest Polls Ever

National Conference president and chief ministerial candidate Omar Abdullah today filed his nomination papers for the Ganderal Assembly constituency - and warned party workers that the J&K elections would be the 'toughest ever,' especially since there was an 'anti-incumbency factor' at work.
During a speech at the Nawa-e-Subh party headquarters, Omar told party workers: "These elections will be different. This time, the opposition has united to defeat us. I admit that there is an anti-incumbency factor, but it's nothing new. It's faced by every ruling party."
Omar added that while it was easy to rope in crowds for public rallies, winning elections was a 'different matter.' "Even I can arrange hundreds of people for a rally, but to win elections, parties need to work for the welfare of the masses," he said. "We have developmental works to our credit and we intend to take them to the masses." The party had some 'fresh programmes' that it would pull out of the hat during campaigning, he added.
Omar, who took over as NC president from his father and J-K chief minister Farooq Abdullah in June, also told reporters that "I'm not contesting from Ganderbal just because it's a safe seat." Ganderbal is an NC stronghold from where the party has won with a majority in 1977, 1983, 1987 and 1996. "Given our achievements, I could have contested from anywhere, but the party wanted to me contest from Ganderbal."
That the road ahead for the ruling party isn't an easy one is evident from the numbers that are switching party loyalties just days before September 16, the first day of polling. NC legislator from Amirakadal constituency, Mohammad Shafi Bhat, today sprang a surprise by filing his nomination papers on a Congress ticket. Bhat had been ignored for the Amirakadal seat in favour of Ghulam Nabi Mir during the selection of candidates.
Another setback was the resignation of Farooq Abdullah's cultural secretary, Shafi Shaida. According to sources, Shaida will be contesting as an Independent from Zadibal, where the NC is fielding Sadiq Ali, a Shia.

The Indian Express, Mufti Islah, September 5, 2002,
http://www.expressindia.com/kashmir/full_story.php?content_id=8868&type=ie

BJP, JSM Put Ink on Tie-Up

The BJP, after hard bargaining, today decided to leave 12 seats for the RSS-backed Jammu Rajya Morcha in the forthcoming Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections.
Though the Assembly has 87 constituencies, the influence of the two parties does not practically extend beyond Jammu region that accounts for 36 constituencies. The Morcha, a 19-body coalition led by RSS leader Shrikumar, is contesting the elections with the statehood demand for Jammu as its main plank.
The dispute was basically over seven seats. The BJP got four of them, Jammu (East), Suchetgarh, Akhnoor, Udhampur, leaving Jammu (West), Bishnah, Reasi for the Morcha.
Om Prakash Kohli, in-charge of the state BJP, replied in the negative when asked if there would be a joint BJP-Morcha campaign. However, their issues would be common, barring the demand for statehood. The BJP, he explained, would focus on the discrimination against Jammu and non-performance of the Farooq Abdullah government.

The Indian Express, Pradeep Kaushal, September 5, 2002,
http://www.expressindia.com/kashmir/full_story.php?content_id=8869&type=ie

J&K Voters' List has a Glaring Hole in the Valley

In all its pronouncements on free and fair elections in Jammu and Kashmir, the Election Commission hasn't mentioned a startling discrepancy. Jammu's population is 20% lower than that of Kashmir, it has only 37 constituencies compared to Kashmir's 46. And yet Jammu has 1.8 lakh more voters than Kashmir.
This dichotomy between population and number of voters is unique to J&K. It first came to light during the 1999 Lok Sabha elections reflecting a decade-long trend since militancy: the steady rise of voters in Jammu and a plateauing off in the Valley. So much so that today, while 66% of Jammu's population is registered to vote, in Kashmir less than half (47%) of the population are voters.
Consider the following:
Jammu's population as per the 2001 Census is 43.9 lakh, that of Kashmir is 54.4 lakh. But Jammu has 28.7 lakh voters while Kashmir has only 25.5 lakh voters.
Take the Sopore constituency in the Valley and Jammu West. During the 1987 Assembly polls, both had roughly the same number of voters: about 54,000. This year's figures show that the number of voters in Sopore has gone up over the last 15 years by 19% while Jammu West shot up by 177% making it the largest Assembly constituency in the state.
Anywhere else, such a startling contrast would have raised several questions. In fact, it did in Gujarat where the EC admitted that a key reason why it put off polls was that "defective rolls would deprive a substantially large number of electors" of their right to vote.
This 'deprivation,' if anything, is even greater in Kashmir. And it would have been greater had it not been for a special drive since June to mobilise voters in the Valley. As reported by The Indian Express, police and security personnel are insisting that people have voter ID cards to ensure their safety. Result: 3.12 lakh more people have registered to vote in Kashmir while 1.67 lakh in Jammu. Even with this 'surge' in the Valley, the gap remains at 1.8 lakh.
Why this discrepancy? Because the EC failed to hold 'intensive revision' of the rolls in J&K ever since insurgency spread there in 1989. Intensive revision means a door-to-door survey. Instead of this, the EC has been doing 'summary revision,' in which people are invited to make 'claims and objections' on already existing rolls.
The last time the EC held an intensive revision in J&K was in 1988. In most other states, the EC has since then held an intensive revision at least twice - once in 1995 and then in 2001. In a press release two months ago, the EC acknowledged that it could not hold an intensive revision in J&K for over a decade "due to a variety of reasons, the primary one being unrest in the Valley."
However, a key fact is ignored: despite unrest, the Government held a census in J&K last year with enumerators fanning out to remote villages. Since a Census survey involves door-to-door survey, why didn't the EC do the intensive survey?
While no EC official was willing to speak on record, sources in the commission justify 'summary revision.' Since it puts the onus on people to come forward and register themselves, it's easier to verify their claims. Moreover, EC officials claim, any omission can't be used by separatists and anti-poll lobbies to allege that the state has disenfranchised a section of the population.
As for the Census-EC parallel, officials claim that separatists welcomed the Census because it helped establish that Muslims are still in a majority in the state. But they would have disrupted a similar door-to-door survey by the election machinery because of their anti-election stand.

Manoj Mitta & Nazir Masoodi, The Indian Express, September 5, 2002,
http://www.expressindia.com/kashmir/full_story.php?content_id=8874

NC's Budgam Nominee Under Cloud, Minister Quits in Protest

J-K Junior Education Minister Agha Mehmood today resigned alleging that NC's Budgam candidate was under-aged. Mehmood was a hot contender for the seat.
Mehmood alleged that Aga Roohullah was 20 years old but his date of birth was forged to show he is 26, a year more than the minimum age to fight polls. The forgery, he claimed, was made by the correction committee of the education board on the state government's directions.
Mehmood said Roohullah was born in 1982. "The board has now shown his year of birth as 1976," he said, announcing that he had filed papers as an independent from Budgam.
Sources claimed the correction committee changed the date of birth two days ago on the basis of a certificate by the Jamia Babul Illim, Budgam. The Jamia's chief organiser is Roohullah's uncle A.S. Hassan. The correction committee ignored the records of the prestigious Tyndale Biscoe (which puts the date of birth as August 12, 1982) where Roohullah studied from 1990 to 1999.
District Election Officer of Budgam, Baseer Khan, said: "He (Roohullah) was 20 and we changed it after he submitted a new date of birth certificate issued by the Board, which shows him as 26." Deputy Chief Electoral Officer B.S. Jamwal said the records have been called for and a verification has started.

The Indian Express, Nazir Masoodi, September 6, 2002,
http://www.expressindia.com/kashmir/full_story.php?content_id=8933&type=ie

Securing J&K Polls

The cold-blooded killing of the workers of the National Conference, as well as those of the People's Democratic Party, is reprehensible but should not come as a surprise. Nor should the abduction of some political activists.
It may be recalled that political leaders and workers were specially targeted by terrorists during the election campaign in Punjab when they started to take part in the election campaign. The past few weeks have seen more and more people in the Valley veer towards participating in the election process, and this seems to have unnerved jehadi groups on both sides of the Line of Control. The aim of these groups is clear: to disrupt the J&K polls and, at the very minimum, reduce participation by political workers and leaders.
These groups do not have the courage to stand up and be counted through a democratic process and have, in characteristically cowardly fashion, resorted to the bullet instead.
General Pervez Musharraf has made public announcements that no terrorism would be permitted from Pakistan-held territories. The U.S. has, on more than one occasion, assured New Delhi that Pakistan is serious about these promises. By a curious coincidence, the world will commemorate the first anniversary of September 11, a few days before polling starts in J&K.
The sentiment and actions against international terrorism would undoubtedly receive added focus and attention across the globe to make all forms of terrorism less acceptable to the civilised world. Al Qaeda and other groups have been on the run, although a few of them have been captured or killed.
This does not mean that jehadi terrorism is about to end, or that such terrorist groups are about to give up their nefarious acts. In fact, they may be expected to keep fighting for a long time. It is against this background that we need to see the situation in J&K.
The realisation that the coming elections would have significantly higher participation by the people tired of the senseless violence of more than a decade seems to have added to the desperation of the terrorists.
The risks to the political leaders and workers is likely to increase in the coming days, almost in inverse proportion to the desire of the people to participate in the process of choosing their future government.
Implicit in the current spate of terrorist killings is the threat to the other innocents of the state, especially the voters and their families. The problem, of course, is that the greater the participation of people in the electoral process the more difficult it becomes possible to provide security to individual politicians.
At the same time, the establishment would need to ensure that a climate of security is generated rather than trying to protect each and every person threatened by the desperados.

The Indian Express,
http://www.expressindia.com/kashmir/full_story.php?content_id=8881&type=ie

Shah, Bhat Put Under House Arrest

A day after Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah's party decided to boycott Jammu and Kashmir assembly polls, the authorities today placed him and some leaders of Hurriyat Conference, including its Chairman Abdul Gani Bhat, under house arrest. Official sources said separatist leader Maulana Ahmed Ansari was also put under house arrest.
The sources said police arrived at the residences of separatist leaders asking them not to leave their premises. Shah told PTI a police party arrived at his Rawalpura residence on the outskirts of the city in the wee hours and "ordered me not to leave the premises."
Ansari also confirmed he had been barred by police from leaving his residence.
A delegation of Hurriyat Conference, led by Bhat, is likely to arrive in New Delhi soon to hold talks with Ram Jethmalani-led Kashmir Committee. The sources said the leaders would be allowed to leave for Delhi.

Outlook India, September 6, 2002,
http://www.outlookindia.com/pti_news.asp?id=81449

RSS Non-Committal on Support to J&K BJP Candidates

The RSS is non-committal about extending support to Bharatiya Janata Party candidates in Jammu although the BJP and the RSS-backed Jammu State Morcha have entered into a seat-sharing arrangement.
There was a strong indication from the RSS today that the BJP's game plan of pooling their strengths in Jammu may not work in favour of the BJP.
The RSS spokesperson, M.G. Vaidya, stated categorically today that 'swayamsevaks' would be duty bound to support and vote for the Morcha candidates.
The RSS executive had adopted a resolution favouring trifurcation of the State of Jammu and Kashmir and the Morcha had espoused the cause of a separate Jammu state.
As for BJP candidates, "normally the RSS would have supported BJP candidates in the rest (of the constituencies), but now I cannot say anything," Mr. Vaidya said.
The reason was clear, the Vajpayee Government and the BJP had rejected the RSS formula for breaking up the state into three, Kashmir valley, Jammu and Ladakh.
Admitting that many RSS workers may have some sympathy for the BJP - "thoda bahut to BJP se lagav hai" (we do care a little bit for the BJP) - he indicated that where there were no Morcha candidates RSS sympathisers would be left free to vote as they pleased.
The RSS was pleased that in Ladakh almost all the parties, including the BJP, the Congress and even the National Conference, had been virtually forced to support the newly formed Front which had gained immense popularity and was expected to win all the seats (including two which it would win unopposed).
Mr. Vaidya also made it clear that the Morcha will not beg for seats from the BJP. It had decided to contest wherever it had a reasonable chance of winning and could put up a credible candidate.

The Hindu, September 7, 2002,
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2002/09/07/stories/2002090704391100.htm

Democracy of Denial in Kashmir

The statements made by the 'big two' at the Centre that most elections in Kashmir were rigged and the brouhaha by Chief Minister Dr. Farooq Abdullah over these statements is not surprising for the people of Kashmir. They are fully aware that the corrupt, repressive, unpopular and inefficient governments installed on them by undemocratic means were the handiwork of the Central and State governments. Therefore, to level charges against each other for raping democracy in Kashmir and making promises to restore 'real democracy' does not hold any meaning for Kashmiris.
The election history of Kashmir reveals that the process of rigging elections in the State began in 1951, under Shiekh Abdullah's leadership. In these elections, all 75 seats in the State Constituent Assembly were captured by the National Conference. The elections were severely criticized, but the severest criticism came from the Praja Parishad Party and Pakistan. Rejecting them, both the Praja Parishad and Pakistan described them as a 'Fraud and Farce.' Similarly, the National Conference, headed by Bakshi Gulam Mohammad 'won' 95 and 97 per cent of seats. In the elections of 1957 and 1962, the ruling party's candidates were returned unopposed, in 43 and 47 seats respectively. Of the total 75, nominal contests were confined mostly to Jammu. When the international Press wrote, challenging the fairness of these election, Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru wrote to Bakhshi Gulam Mohammad after the 1962 polls, advising him to lose a few seats in future, so that the image of the world's largest democracy is not tarnished. In the subsequent elections of 1967, 1972 and 1983 leaving aside the elections of 1977, the sabotage of representative democracy was considered a normal practise.
The 1987 elections marked a watershed in Kashmiri politics. The Muslim United Front (MUF), a broad coalition of political groups in the Valley, was formed to fight the National Conference-Congress alliance, and enjoyed massive public support in the Valley. It was defeated by dubious means. People who supported the MUF were convinced that the establishment of a MUF government would succeed in the eradication of corruption, nepotism, unemployment and poverty. They were also convinced that those bureaucrats and politicians, who had misused their official positions, would be punished. People also thought that it would exercise control over anti-social and anti-democratic activities and bring the state of Jammu and Kashmir on the track of progress and prosperity.
In the constituencies where elections were manipulated, polling agents of opposition candidates were arrested and beaten up publicly, not only by the police but also by the National Conference candidates. Almost all the MUF and their prominent supporters were arrested and detained under the public Safety Act. It was in prison that the five young men who started armed militancy in Kashmir in late 1989, decided to go to Pakistan administered Kashmir for military training and weapons. They were the active supporters of the MUF and close associates of Peer Mohammad Yousuf Shah, the present Supreme Commander of HM, who contested the 1987 Assembly elections from the Amara Kadal Constituency but was defeated.
An Indian correspondent discovered after militancy erupted in 1990 that, "Nearly all the young men on the wanted list today were guarding ballot-boxes for MUF as campaign volunteers in 1987." Thus, the persistent policy of denying Kashmiris democratic rights forced the youth to resort to the gun to settle scores. This is why the 1989, 1996 and 2001 Parliamentary, State Assembly and Panchayat elections proved a big flop. They were boycotted by the Kashmiri people because their faith in the sanctity of the ballot was completely shattered. Now they are demanding some special gesture from India, which has called for 'free and fair polls.' How this will work in practice is known to every Kashmiri.

Mehraj Hajini, Article No: 854, September 9, 2002,
http://www.ipcs.org/issues/800/854-kas-hajini.html

Jammu's the Stage for RSS vs. BJP Battle

On the altar of the Great Indian Election, the right-wingers are loosening up, their baggage of ideology packed away. In full public view, they are screaming and hurling abuses at each other.
Worse, there is no end in sight to this ugly pre-election scrambling between the favourite and the youngest child of the Rashtriya Swamsevak Sangh and its oldest and most maligned political arm.
The RSS-backed Jammu State Morcha and its right-wing brother the Bharatiya Janata Party have for all practical purposes parted ways, as both try independent rides on the wave of Jammu's age-old complaint of state neglect and discrimination.
The JSM, demanding statehood for the Jammu region, says it would not withdraw any candidate from all the three seats in Jammu town, while the BJP insiders speak of a possible last-minute patch up to finalise a tie up announced in New Delhi.
The electoral alliance that the BJP and the JSM had announced in Delhi is not visible here on the ground. And the two are going out their own way, splitting the right wing votes and assuring some pleasant surprises for candidates from other parties.
Says Ramesh Pappa, a national general secretary of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad and an active JSM campaigner: "We have three candidates in the city. The Morcha position is clear: We are not going to withdraw any candidate."
The JSM has fielded a university professor (Dr. Virendra Gupta from Jammu West) and two advocates (Onkar Seth from Cantonment and Tilak Raj Sharma) to test the waters, as the RSS takes a deep plunge into the hurly-burly of electoral politics.
The Sangha Parivar has clearly overcome its inhibitions about elections: Its Jammu and Kashmir chief Sreekumar heads the JSM. For the record he is no more the JK unit chief of the RSS. But that is just for the record.
The JSM was born out an RSS resolution in June this year in Kurukshetra, where the organisation decided to launch a front demanding statehood for Jammu.
Pappa told rediff.com that the SJM was not holding any 'secret parleys' with the BJP to firm up a last-minute alliance.
Monday is the last day for withdrawal of nominations for the Jammu town's three constituencies that go to polls in the second phase.
Gireesh Joyal, an organisational secretary of the SJM, told rediff.com that his party was extending support to "candidates based on their stand towards the demand for the reorganisation of the state."
Thus, he claims, the two seats won by the Ladakh Union Territory Front demanding Union Territory status for the Buddhist majority region belong to the 'SJM alliance.'
"We are also extending support to several candidates in the Kashmir Valley, all of them nationalist Muslims who are for the division of the state into three," Joyal says. He wouldn't reveal their names fearing threat to their lives.
"A common symbol may be a problem, as several of our candidates are contesting as independents. But we have candidates in most constituencies," he adds.

Josy Joseph, Rediff, September 9, 2002,
http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/sep/09jk.htm

Fair Elections Needed for Peace

The announcement of the Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir has again brought the Kashmir issue on the centre stage of South-Asian politics. It has also raised a feeble hope of peace in the troubled state. But it seems the assembly elections, spread over the months of September and October, would be very similar to the elections held earlier in the state during the last decade. The secessionist parties have again declared that they would not be participating in the elections. That leaves only three contenders for power: the National Conference, Congress and the BJP. Though the People's Democratic Party of Mufti Mohammad Sayed has its support base in some areas in the state, it cannot be a serious contender for power. The same goes for the BJP. In this situation, a state-wide contest can only be expected between the Congress and the National Conference. This issue is important as only a party with state-wide support could form the government, or at least be a leading player in a coalition government that may be formed. But the Congress has always been considered an outside force with hardly any local roots. The only serious challenge to the National Conference could have come from the All Party Harriet Conference, but, as they have decided to boycott the polls, the elections are likely to be strongly tilted in favour of the National Conference.
The elections in the state are important for two different reasons; first for the legitimacy it confers on the government and its impact on state politics and the law and order. The non-participation of the APHC group will not make the elections less legitimate, but their participation definitely would have been advantageous for state politics to ensure a larger participation of the people.
In the absence of APHC participation, the best option for India is to make the election as free and fair as possible. It will help create the impression that the Indian government is genuinely interested in seeking peace and democracy in the state. During the last few years, the law and order situation in Kashmir has perceptibly deteriorated. The large-scale violence in the state has focussed the attention of the world community on the Kashmir issue. Now, it is being referred to in the same breath as the Palestine issue, which has implications for the Indian policy towards Kashmir.
So far, India's declared policy has been to treat the Kashmir issue as an internal affair of the country. But after the end of the Cold War, several principles of international politics have changed and international security is increasingly being linked to regional security. Hence, if the situation continues to deteriorate and a warlike situation continues on our border, it will become very difficult to stop outside powers from interceding in the Kashmir problem. And, this is precisely what Pakistan wants.
If the state is run by a democratically elected government, which is perceived by the international community to be legitimate, it will help remove the stigma of repression on the Indian state, which Pakistan has always tried to pin on India.
Despite India's severe criticism of Pakistan for its proxy war and state sponsored terrorism, it has not been able to influence the international opinion in its favour against Pakistan. Though the U.S. has occasionally admonished Pakistan recently for its role in supporting terrorism, it has steadfastly refused to brand Pakistan as a terrorist state.
On the other hand, Pakistan has benefited enormously by the bloodshed committed by the militants. Turmoil in the state has allowed it to raise the Kashmir issue in every international forum, which has not only embarrassed India, but also invariably placed it on the defensive.
The J&K elections provide a great opportunity to give the state a democratically elected government, which is seen by the international community to be legitimate and enjoys the faith of the local people. They should not be led to believe that another farce is being conducted in the name of the elections, which will not serve any purpose.

Anand Kumar, Article No: 857, September 12, 2002,
http://www.ipcs.org/issues/800/857-kas-kumar.html

First, J&K Elections

There is a strange disconnect somewhere. For one, the Kashmir Committee's initiative of establishing a dialogue process with the Hurriyat Conference appears to have met with some degree of success, yet it is taking place against the background of elections in Kashmir that the Hurriyat has been steadfast in rejecting.
For another, the Kashmir Committee (KC) began its deliberations against the much publicised support extended to it by L.K. Advani but the deputy prime minister has since lost no opportunity to clarify that its stance in no way represents the thinking of the union government. As if in response to the Committee's avowed willingness to talk to the Pakistan-based National Kashmir Committee, Advani has stated categorically 'the day we decide to hold talks with Pakistan, the government will do so on its own.'
Yet, no matter what the formal posture of the Indian government appears to be, some ground has been covered by the KC, which could translate into gains in the future.
The very fact that the Hurriyat Conference, which enjoys the support of 23 political parties in state, has asked for the abandoning of 'all extreme stands' that were coming in the way of arriving at an 'honourable and durable peace' is significant, even if it is regarded only as rhetoric. But an important qualification has to be emphasised at this juncture. There is an election process on in the state and every effort must be made to ensure its success.
Therefore the KC and, yes, the Hurriyat Conference as well, must ask themselves three questions. One, how does it hope to dovetail the peace process it is trying to promote so fervently with the democratic project? Two, how does it intend to involve the government that emerges from these polls in the deliberations? Finally, and most important, how does it intend to win the confidence of the Centre?
Clearly, this is a long-distance race and nothing will come out of forcing the pace artificially. Clearly, too, a great deal will depend on the government-to-government initiatives between India and Pakistan. The first step then is to await the results of the polls, due to begin next week and staggered over three weeks.
Going by preliminary reports from the election field, there is a mood of public expectation - and this despite the tragic outbreak of violence occasionally.
After the lost decade of the nineties, the people here are looking not just for peace but for the dividends of peace in terms of improved lives.
It is unclear if the 23 parties of the Hurriyat Conference even notice this. They are either oblivious of these developments or are studiously ignoring them. Such a foreshortening of political vision is most unfortunate, especially when it is exhibited by an entity that sees itself as the guardian of the state's political future.

The Indian Express, Editorial,
http://www.indian-express.com/full_story.php?content_id=9154

The Kashmir Committee Puzzle

Why did Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani encourage the Kashmir Committee (KC), under the chairmanship of Ram Jethmalani, to talk to the leaders of non-National Conference parties in Srinagar and then invite these leaders to New Delhi for further talks with the prime minister and deputy prime minister? And, why, on its return from Srinagar, did he refuse to have anything to do with it?
In what manner did the DPM's alleged 'encouragement' to KC manifest itself? Did he leap with joy, slap his sides and exclaim at the highest level of excitement: "What a wonderful idea: go quickly to Srinagar and bring back to North Block all those separatist Kashmiris so that we can launch them in this electoral battle?"
Or did Advani in deference to Ram Jethmalani's seniority, give the KC a patient hearing and politely nodded agreement when one of its members asked, "Shall we inform the media that we have your sanction to meet the separatist leaders and that, should these talks promise light at the end of the tunnel, the PM and you will meet these leaders?"
The genesis of the KC can be traced back to June 7, when Jethmalani was in Srinagar to condole the death of his friend, Abdul Ghani Lone. A conversation at the Palace Hotel, overlooking Dal Lake, with Shabir Shah and about 50 'jehadis' caused Jethmalani and his interlocutors to appreciate the need for a continuation of such talks.
But before the KC could become buoyant, another Kashmir-related script was playing itself out on another plane: Farooq Abdullah would step down from the Valley, become vice president, the subsequent Governor's rule in Kashmir would then impart to the elections an extra sheen of fairness.
Jethmalani insists that Vajpayee had told him Farooq Abdullah was refusing to come down as vice president, but this is at variance with all other versions. Once Abdul Kalam became president, it was obvious that no other Muslim would be slotted as vice president.
Farooq then accepted a place in the union cabinet as minister without portfolio but only after Omar Abdullah was installed as chief minister in Kashmir.
By the time the KC was constituted, Farooq Abdullah had refused to budge from Srinagar until he had at least launched the election process. Also the chief election commissioner had announced the dates for the Kashmir polls.
What room for manoeuvre was the KC left with? Where was the time for any persuasion to be effective at least in the context of elections which, to be broad based, required the recalcitrant elements to first be converted and then be given time to explore the electoral turf?
But if the KC was not going to be able to play any role in the context of the elections, why was it 'encouraged' to be air-borne?
New Delhi is full of conspiracy theories. One of them suggests that Jethmalani was 'encouraged' to proceed on his mission in order to neutralise some quiet initiatives on Kashmir the PMO was embarked on.
After all, A.S. Daulat, senior officer and former head of RAW, is the officer on special duty for Kashmir in the PMO.
But what initiative could the PMO have embarked upon? It is true that leaders of the Hurriyat and other parties are in regular contact with Dulat. It is also true that the sons of the assassinated leader, Bilal and Sajjad Lone, noticing a popular upsurge in response to their father's 'martyrdom,' looked the other way even as candidates from their father's Popular Front filed their nominations in defiance of Hurriyat hardliners.
So, when the KC returned from Srinagar, with Shabir Shah as their probable catch, the question arose as to whether or not the PM and DPM should meet Shah. Should Vajpayee meet Kashmiri leaders who, at this late stage, were only interested in discussing 'conditions' under which elections would be valid?
What kind of a signal would this send to elements in the Valley who had jumped into the electoral fray without any preconditions simply in response to what they gauge is the popular mood?
Vajpayee conveyed his hesitation to Advani who, thereafter, refused to meet Shabir Shah. 'Volte-face! Volte-face,' screamed the KC. Jethmalani is firmly of the view that Farooq Abdullah scuttled the crucial rendezvous by striking a deal with the BJP that he would help a handful of BJP candidates win in Jammu and elsewhere.
The KC and others, who keep its ears close to the ground, may scream 'volte-face,' but the fact of the matter is that the parivar hardliners cannot find on Advani's robes any taint of 'softness' in his handling of the Kashmir script in recent weeks.
In these circumstances, should even a semi-credible election materialise in Kashmir, it will not be because New Delhi tried hard. In fact, at that moment the KC will have the links for another beginning in the Valley.
By all accounts, it has considerable good will because it was generally felt in the Valley that the KC had its heart in the right place.

Saeed Naqvi, The Indian express,
http://www.expressindia.com/kashmir/full_story.php?content_id=8885

Army Forcing Us to Vote: Villagers

Though Chief Election Commissioner J M Lyngdoh urged them to vote "freely and fearlessly," a number of Kashmiri villagers said the Army was Monday forcing them to participate in the polls.
In the village of Kulangam of the Kupwara district - one of five voting on Monday in the first of four rounds to elect the Kashmir assembly - several of the 2,000 residents said the army was intimidating those who had planned to boycott the polls.
"I was sitting in my house at 8:00 am taking tea when three or four army people knocked on the door," said shopkeeper Mushtaq Ahmad. "They said, 'Go to the polling station and cast your vote. Why are you inside?' We're worried that they will come back and beat us. I don't want to vote. I'm on a poll boycott."
Nonetheless a long queue of voters was waiting at the polling station in Kulangam. Many of them said they were voting because the army gave them no choice.
"I was on the road going to my house when 10 or 12 soldiers came past me and said I have to vote," said Fayaz Ahmad.
Added 52-year-old Abdul Aziz: "Everyone here has been compelled to vote." "It is due to the security forces that we are here. The army came to my house at 6:30 am. I hadn't even taken my tea."
The alleged coercion came despite assurances from all top officials dealing with the election that the thousands of troops stationed in Kashmir would only ensure security, not force voters to the polls.
"None of you who does not wish to vote is to be forced to do so," Lyngdoh said Sunday in New Delhi.
"The government hopes that the people of Jammu and Kashmir will exercise their franchise freely and fearlessly," he added.
Militants have threatened to kill anyone showing up at the polls. Candidates showing up to vote were surrounded by up to 12-armed security guards each, as the army and police patrolled up and down roads near the polling booths.
Twenty-four political activists have been killed since dates of the election were announced August 2, including two candidates, both in Kupwara district.
The slain candidates included Kashmir's law minister Mushtaq Ahmad Lone, who was assassinated as he addressed a rally Wednesday.
One of the few separatists running in the election, Ghulam Mohiudin Sofi, said turnout was higher than in the previous parliamentary polls in 1996.
"You can see for yourself people have come out to vote" in larger numbers, Sofi told Star News television as he cast his ballot. But he added: "There is a sense of fear because of the killing of Mushtaq Lone."
A fruit seller in Handwara said he was choosing to vote for Sofi to throw out the long-ruling National Conference party. "The NC representative has done nothing for the people," said the 22-year-old, also named Mushtaq Ahmad. "I'm not afraid to come to vote."
Long queues formed to vote in Handwara, with some voters waiting for up to an hour to cast their votes. "Many voters have come so far this morning," said the presiding election officer, wearing a bullet-proof vest.

Sify News, September 16, 2002,
http://headlines.sify.com/1176news4.html?headline=Army~forcing~us~to~vote:~Villagers

Vote Enthusiastically, Lyngdoh Tells J&K Voters

On the eve of the first phase of elections to the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, the Chief Election Commissioner, J.M. Lyngdoh, today appealed to the voters to exercise their franchise enthusiastically as the international media and diplomats would be keenly watching the elections.
Addressing a press conference after a full Commission meeting here to take stock of the poll arrangements in the State, Mr. Lyngdoh said that no person would be forced to vote. "But there are many of you, going by the media coverage of the election, who wish to vote despite the needless bloodshed and tribulation you have been through." Arrangements had been made and security personnel deployed in large numbers to protect the voters.
"The intrepid media and members of the diplomatic corps in strength from many parts of the world are your guests just to see you voting. Do not disappoint them," he said. The CEC, who was accompanied by the Election Commissioners, T.S. Krishnamurthy and B.B. Tandon, said that the Commission had, to ensure openness of the poll process, issued special passes to 28 Delhi-based diplomats, who would have free access to the polling stations. While 16 diplomats would be visiting Kupwara and Baramullah in the first phase, two would visit Rajouri and Poonch in the Jammu region. As many as 14,36,151 people would exercise their franchise in tomorrow's polling that would be spread over nearly 2,000 polling stations.
The Commission had sent 17 special observers as well as 48 additional observers and they had already started monitoring every stage of the election process. Nearly 5,000 personnel from Uttar Pradesh and Punjab had been deployed for election duty.

The Hindu, September 16, 2002,
http://www.hinduonnet.com/stories/2002091604810100.htm

Islamabad Out to Disrupt Poll: PM

Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee told a group of U.S. Congressmen that India would have to choose its own course of action if the international community fails to prod Pakistan to do more to stop cross-border terrorism into Kashmir. He also said that Islamabad was bent on sabotaging the Kashmir elections.
Mr. Vajpayee met members of the Congress from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The talk naturally turned to terrorism and Mr. Vajpayee recalled that India had joined the international coalition against terrorism with the conviction that only global and comprehensive effort would help eliminate this menace. The coalition, he said had made considerable headway in Afghanistan, "a lot more needs to be done further East" on Pakistan's border with India. He said infiltration across India's borders had increased, and now every effort was being made to sabotage the elections in Jammu and Kashmir through intimidation of voters and the candidates.

Deccan Herald, September 16, 2002,
http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/sept16/ipol.htm

Barmulla Voters Protest Coercion by Troops

Even as the polling began sharp at 7 am today in the north Kashmir districts of Baramulla and Kupwara, there were some protests that troops are using force to get people to polling booths in Baramulla. People demonstrated at Pattan Chowk in the Baramulla district against what they called 'highhandedness' on the part of troops. The protestors were alleging that men of 29 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) were forcing them to come out of their houses to vote. Similar demonstrations also took place at Tapper Chowk where the people alleged that troops used force to herd people out of their homes to cast their ballots. There were also some reports of RR troops thrashing some people at Hanjiwara in the same district for not proceeding towards the polling centres. RR officials are yet to react to these allegations.

Imtiyaz Bakhshi, The Indian Express, September 16, 2002,
http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=14776#compstory

History of Rigged Polls in Held Kashmir

There are elections which are free and others which are not free and are sham. Free societies worldwide have a host of built-in legal procedures to ensure fairness of elections. But all elections in Indian occupied Kashmir fall in the category of sham, rigged elections marked by deception. This process of Indian supervised election in Jammu and Kashmir has been deplored by eminent political commentators, including Prem Nath Bazaz.
He has said "Undoubtedly, to hoodwink world opinion and silence the democratic elements in the State, the farce of elections was enacted periodically along with general elections in the rest of the country, but the fact remained that the final decision regarding election of candidates, extent of rigging and supply of funds rested with Central Congress leadership in India." (Democracy through Intimidation and Terror, The Untold Story of Kashmiri Politics, New Delhi, 1978).
The State Assembly elections in occupied Kashmir--nine from 1951 to 1996 - show a dismal record of India's perfidy. In the elections of October 1951, held for the so-called Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir, and which took the decision for the final 'accession' of Jammu and Kashmir to India, 73 out of the 75 candidates of the National Conference (NC) led by Sheikh Abdullah, were declared elected without contest. In the remaining two constituencies, NC candidates were also declared elected through hooliganism against their opponents.
In the 1957 elections, 30 candidates of the NC, led by Bakshi Ghulam Muhammad, were declared elected without contest. Ten more NC candidates were declared elected after their opponents' nomination papers were rejected. Twenty-eight constituencies were rigged in favour of NC candidates. The final result was; 68 NC, 1 Harijan Mandal, and one Independent. The election was boycotted by the Plebiscite Front, the supporters of Sheikh Abdullah and the majority of Kashmiri people.
In the 1962 elections, 33 candidates from the NC were declared elected without contest. In eight constituencies, opposition candidates were forced to withdraw their nominations, while the nomination papers of another four were rejected. Opposition candidates alleged that they were intimidated and some even kidnapped to prevent them from filing their nominations. The final result was: 69 NC, three Praja Parishad, and two Independents. Plebiscite Front again boycotted the elections.
In the 1967 elections, by which time, the Congress Party had been formed in the State, 60 of the 75 seats were taken by the Congress by virtue of widespread vote rigging. The nomination papers of 22 opposition candidates were rejected as a result of which Congress candidates were returned without contest from these constituencies.
In the 1972 elections too, the Congress Party retained a two-third majority. In the 1977 elections, a revived NC led by late Sheikh Abdullah won. In the 1983 elections, NC lead by Farooq Abdullah, took 47 out of 75 seats. All these elections were marked by institutionalised vote-rigging.
In the 1987 elections, the NC formed an alliance with the Congress, and together they took 62 seats. This election was widely commented upon for being a sham and completely rigged. "There was a consensus in the administration and the intelligence agencies that the Congress-National Conference alliance had resorted to large scale rigging." (The Times of India, January 10 1990).
The then State Governor Jagmohan said in his report to Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi: "You have won the election but lost Kashmir." The 1987 State Assembly elections were a watershed in the history of Jammu and Kashmir. Kashmiri alienation from India was total, the people of Kashmir boycotted the 1989 elections in the State for seats in the Indian Parliament.
Commenting on the incredibly low turnout in the elections, The Patriot of New Delhi (November 26, 1989) said: "The only point left to be determined about the farce that goes by the name of elections held in the Kashmir Valley is, that whether the turnout of voters was four per cent as claimed by official quarters or that it was actually only two per cent."
The 1996 elections for the Indian Parliament were widely reported by the international media to have been held at gun point: "Indian guns force Kashmiri voters to ballot box" said The Times of London on May 24, 1996. "Troops force Kashmiri to vote" reported the Washington Post the same day. Reports in the Indian media too were much the same. "People herded, forced to vote," said The Statesman on May 24, 1996. The Hindu reported on May 30, 1996, "Elections held under shadow of gun."
The final result was: J&K National Conference 56+2 nominated women, Awami League (Kuka Parey) 1, Panthers Party 1, Independent 2, Bharatiya Janata Party 8, Indian National Congress 7, Congress (Tiwari) 1, Janata Dal 5, Bohojan Samaj Party 5, and CPI (Marxist) 1.
Says former Judge of Kashmir High Court, Mufti Bahauddin Farooqi, Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Basic Human Rights Committee, "Kashmir has been notorious for rigged and fraudulent elections at the instance of the government, but that always used to be a covert exercise in which administrative set-up and money played a decisive role.
"Elections, particularly the recent ones, in Jammu and Kashmir have provided a wholly true picture of military might being employed in its naked form to control and regulate the wishes of the people of Kashmir."
Elections under the inhibiting presence of a large number of Indian military and paramilitary forces, (to date over 700,000) will never be an answer to the core problem of Kashmir. And unless the Kashmiri people get their right of self-determination, the Kashmir crisis will continue, rigged elections notwithstanding. It is time for India's rulers to understand this to India's benefit.

Dr. Ayub Thakur, The News, September 16, 2002,
http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/index.html

Gun Point Polls

Indian held Kashmir is braced for a particularly violent state 'election' which starts today with the 700,000 Indian occupation force determined to break the Kashmiris boycott. The tenth in a series of electoral exercises that is basically illegitimate, it will repeat in greater measure the tradition of deceit and gross fraud that was set in 1951 when India sought to circumvent the U.N. SC resolutions. But this time also, it is expected that the level of repression will be stepped up as Delhi is resolved to push through the polls regardless of the increased opposition. But at the same time it has prepared the grounds for explaining away its failure abroad by claiming that the resistance was mainly due to the threat posed by what it describes as 'Islamic terrorists.'
The APHC, which Delhi recognises as being representative of the Kashmiri people as it is set to hold another round of parleys with its leaders, has already distanced itself from the elections. This leaves the National Conference and a few other Kashmiri parties along with local versions of some Indian parties to fight among themselves for votes without many voters. For the greater part the statistics will largely depend on the success of 'gun point voting': how many people the Indian forces can drag to the polling booths. However, even this is not likely to help as in the 1996 elections the turnout was dismal despite the massive resort to coercion.
But India, far from being overly troubled by the threat posed to the elections, is using it to sell itself as committed to ensuring democratic rights in the teeth of violent opposition. It has already won approval from western states and is expected to go further by blaming Pakistan for the failure of the polls. America's concern for its own interests has affected its ability to understand international problems with greater clarity.
Pakistan needs to change its Kashmir policy, bringing it into sync with the demands of the time rather than to tread a lonely path that has not proved fruitful so far. The international perceptions are beginning to change and what was taken to be for granted is no longer so. There is much less of the earlier emphasis on principles and more of pragmatism among the western states who see themselves as the natural inheritors of a world in which they want to face no threat. The rights of Kashmiris and Palestinians and others similarly placed are no longer at the top of the agenda. These have been obscured by terrorism regardless of its hue that poses the new peril. The boycott of the polls in a distant trouble spot will be deplored in western capitals, not sought to be understood.

The News, Editorial, September 16, 2002,
http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/index.html

Indian Held Kashmir Paralysed

Indian Occupied Kashmir was virtually paralysed on Monday on the occasion of first phase of polling in the occupied territory. Reports emanating from Srinagar suggest that the entire Valley came to a standstill as Kashmiris observed strike at the call of their representative body the All Parties Hurriyat Conference.
That the whole Occupied Kashmir presented a deserted look on the voting day gave a loud and clear message to the world that Kashmiris have unanimously rejected the sham elections. In fact, almost all Kashmiri parties and groups had already announced their total boycott of the so-called elections but despite all that the rulers in New Delhi were adamant to go ahead with their plans to give an impression of 'democratic process' in an area they are forcibly occupying for over five decades against the wishes of the Kashmiri people. However, by staying at home the people of Jammu and Kashmir have once again told the international community that nothing short of liberation is acceptable to them. India has tried every tactic to lure Kashmiris into the ploy of fraudulent elections but freedom loving Kashmiris have defeated the nefarious designs of the occupation forces. During the last few weeks, Indians have been complaining to the world that Pakistan is bent upon sabotaging the elections and sought intervention from the West to put pressure on Islamabad. They also sent thousands of additional troops to the Valley and deployed an unprecedented force to encourage Kashmiris to come to the polling stations. However, reports from the districts of Kupwara, Baramulla, Poonch, Rajouri and Kargil, where the exercise was carried out, speak of abysmally low turnout of about 3 to 4%. The independent international media has confirmed this. Reporting from Patan town of western Baramullah district, an AFP correspondent remarked, "polling booths opened on schedule but not a single voter was to be seen." The total strike, boycott and flopping of the first phase drama should serve as an eye-opener for Indians as well as their benefactors who are still hoping for a lollipop solution of this complex problem. It is ironical that instead of learning any lesson from the ground realities, Indian Prime Minister is hurling threats on Pakistan. He must keep in mind that history is replete with instances when all attempts aimed at suppressing the legitimate aspirations of a nation failed. Imposition of a solution against the wishes of the people can never be a durable solution, rather it is hoodwinking one's own self. India must come to the negotiating table, as repeatedly proposed by Pakistan, to solve the issue in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiri people.

Pakistan Observer, Editorial, September 17, 2002,
http://pakobserver.net/200209/17/default.asp?id=8

Kashmir's Moment of Truth

We not only stand by our announcement to disrupt the mock polls but we are vigorously implementing it. We have killed around 20 activists, including candidates of the National Conference (the ruling party in Indian Kashmir) in the past three months. All of them were active in electioneering. These people want to keep and strengthen India's rule in Kashmir. Whosoever, whether Muslim or non-Muslim, Kashmiri or non-Kashmiri, strengthens India's illegal occupation will be our target, just like the Indian soldiers. - Jamiatul Mujahidin, a Kashmiri separatist group.
With the beginning of the electoral process of the Indian controlled Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, a rapid surge of violence could be noticed. For three weeks, beginning from September 16, elections in Jammu and Kashmir will be held in three stages. Pakistan has called these elections as farce whereas, India has blamed Pakistan of sabotaging the election process by hiring Kashmiri militants. On the other hand, the U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell after meeting the Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha in Washington the other day warned Pakistan not to interfere in elections held in the Indian controlled Kashmir. On September 11, Mushtaq Ahmad Lone, Parliamentary affairs and Law Minister in Kashmir's state government was ambushed by the militants in northern Kupwara district when he was travelling to address an election rally. Other incidents of violence took place in which militants have killed six Indian security personnel and a 12-year-old child in Poonch district.
The current round of violence in Jammu and Kashmir began when India announced the holding of state elections from September 16 so that a better sense of participation in the affairs of Kashmiri government could be ensured. When the Indian Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee visited Srinagar in early June at the height of Indo-Pakistan tension along the borders, he announced a financial package for the people of Jammu and Kashmir. But, an ordinary Kashmiri, whose life and honour is constantly at stake because of uninterrupted operations launched by the Indian security forces and the so-called Islamic militants is asking both to give him a break. After years and years of violence, common people of Jammu and Kashmir have reached a breaking point because they don't see a situation in the foreseeable future, which can at least ensure basic safety and honour.
Given this situation, what should the people of Jammu and Kashmir, regardless of their religious origin, do in order to get out of the present vicious cycle of violence? The All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC), which claims to lead the present movement of self-determination, recently called for a tripartite dialogue composed of New Delhi, Islamabad and Kashmiri leaders as a methodology to start the process of resolving the Kashmir conflict. But, both India and Pakistan have their own agenda and are least sensitive to the plight of Kashmiris. Both want the solution according to their own terms resulting in the perpetuation of the ordeal of an ordinary Kashmiri, whether living in the Valley, in Jammu or in Ladakh.
Kashmir's moment of truth has arrived because in the last 14 years they are the ones who are paying the price of proxy war between India and Pakistan and the destruction of their lives and honour by the Indian security forces and militants. They know very well that neither India nor Pakistan are serious in resolving the Kashmir conflict to the satisfaction of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. Had they been interested, the issue would have been resolved when it was at the earlier stage of transformation. Neither the Maharaja of Kashmir, who manipulated the situation and acceded to India, nor Pakistan, which tried to arouse the people of Valley in 1948 and 1965 but failed in its objective, or India, which under the fraud of secularism tried to keep its control over the land, if not the people of Kashmir, ever tried to think about the ordinary Kashmiri who has suffered the most since 1947 and is still suffering.
Three important realities need to be kept in mind as far as Kashmir's moment of truth is concerned. First, their right of self-determination, which has been denied to them since 1947, needs to be granted without any failure of time because neither Pakistan nor India should be allowed to endlessly play with the destiny of 20 million people. If they want to join India, Pakistan or wish to remain independent, the U.N. Security Council should take their aspirations into account.
So far, the U.N. and the international community have ignored the gravity of the Kashmir conflict particularly when the two nuclear rivals are sitting on a powder keg enough to plunge South Asia into total destruction. Therefore, prudence and justice demand that the U.N. Security Council, while taking a serious notice of the Kashmir conflict, should immediately pass a new resolution accepting the 'real' right of self-determination for the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
It should ask India and Pakistan to withdraw their forces from that region, deploy an effective international peacekeeping force, form an administrative machinery independent of New Delhi and neutral in the real sense. That administration should help re-establish normalcy and peace in Jammu and Kashmir, deweaponise the region, provide basic security to people and make arrangements for elections to the constituent assembly. Once elections for the constituent assembly are held in coming two years time, its members should decide by a two-third majority which option they want: independence, joining Pakistan and India.
As long as India and Pakistan continue to hold their military and political control over Jammu and Kashmir, there cannot be any solution to that problem. International involvement is a must in this regard. For that purpose, the people of Jammu and Kashmir need to assert their position because 'enough is enough' and 20 million people cannot be subjugated to the selfish designs of New Delhi and Islamabad for an endless period of time.
Second, there is a need on the part of Kashmiris, whether Muslims, Hindus or Buddhists to exclude militants from their rank, particularly those who are involved in terrorist activities and have external connections. Kashmiris have suffered enough since 1947 and they should disown all such people who are in their midst involved in violence and terrorism. Only by the assertion of the Kashmiri civil society can India, Pakistan and world powers understand the need to resolve the conflict in a just and fair manner.
Unfortunately, Kashmiris don't have any personality like Nelson Mendala or Ho Chi Minh and in the absence of a dynamic leadership they are endlessly suffering. But it doesn't mean that their plight should continue forever. They can pursue the world leaders to listen to their ordeals and save them from an endless state of violence.
Finally, the Kashmiri people must understand that ethnic or religious division of Kashmir will be disastrous and counter productive. Some fanatic Hindu organisations are trying to project the proposal of dividing Kashmir on religious lines.
Jammu and Kashmir must remain a single entity and its future state structure should be democratic and secular because only by holding ethnic and religious diversity they can progress in the years to come.
With such an understanding among the Kashmiri leaders belonging to different faith and ethnic origin, they can build a new and prosperous state provided India and Pakistan are restrained by the big powers to keep their hands off from Jammu and Kashmir. Justice demands that the civil society of India and Pakistan should also put pressure on their governments and various hard line elements to give a real right of self-determination to Kashmiris instead of using them for their vested interests.
Kashmir's moment of truth should also evoke realisations among Indians and Pakistanis that for their narrow selfish interests they have denied the people of that region a respectable and better way of life. If Kashmir remains a football ground for India and Pakistan, it will also cause irreparable damage to the two countries and the South Asian region as a whole.
Already, one can see how the Kashmir conflict has impeded the process of regional cooperation and has consumed billions of dollars which otherwise could have been used for development of the two peoples. At the end of the day, not only the people of Jammu and Kashmir, but also India and Pakistan will pay a heavy price if their rulers continue to play the same old game. Moreover, there is no point in Islamabad condemning polls in Indian controlled Kashmir particularly when it has made it clear that it is not interfering across the Line of Control. Hence Kashmir's moment of truth.

Dr. Moonis Ahmar, The News, September 17, 2002,
http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/index.html

Hurriyat's Absence: A Dampener

Could there have been a better turnout and greater enthusiasm if one of the components of the Hurriyat Conference openly participated in the assembly elections? Probably, yes. The polls in Kupwara district in the first phase on Monday indicated that the Valley's people missed another opportunity to have a real election.
At Dahama, deep inside Handwara constituency, two groups accused each other of capturing a booth. While one group alleged that the other comprised NC supporters, the other group said its rivals belonged to the People's Conference (PC). The local gramsevika, Salima Manzoor, identified herself as a People's Conference supporter. This could have been the nearest the PC got to participate.
Officially, slain leader Abdul Ghani Lone's PC is a constituent of the Hurriyat and has boycotted polls. But many people in Kupwara and Handwara voted for the kalam-dawaat, the symbol of independent candidates, because they thought they had the support of Lone's party.
It was as if the people were in search of a credible opposition to NC. And who else could have offered it but for a Hurriyat component. Most people were ready to keep azadi for a later day if they had a credible opposition.
There were men waiting outside a polling station in Kupwara. Inside, their women were fighting among themselves to cast their votes. How could they manage to come and vote? "We convinced the militants that we have to get rid of this government and they should allow us to vote," said a person.
At Trehgam, a relative of JKLF founder Maqbool Bhatt said high polling in his village was because people wanted the right kind of voices in the assembly. But the irony was that all these people, including those in Lone's village, voted for a former NC leader.
But these villagers' enthusiasm was not shared elsewhere. At Magam in Handwara, the booth at Uchar village had polled just 35 of the 442 votes by 2.20 pm.
The village headman, was upset about the Army's "high-handedness" that forced him to vote. But his reluctance was not based on militant ideology or loyalty to boycott call.

Rajesh Ramchandran,, The Times of India, September 17, 2002,
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=22497927

Were the Polls Free and Fair?

At the conclusion of voting in the first phase of elections in Jammu and Kashmir, the Chief Electoral Officer, Pramod Jain, claimed that it was 'history in the making.' He brushed aside questions on allegations of coercion and fraud. All the claims of "free and fair" elections suggested that New Delhi had got it right. And, as the official voter turnout figure leapt overnight from 44 to 52 per cent, the self-congratulatory applause from New Delhi emphasised its distance from the Kashmir Valley.
With the introduction of electronic voting machines, these polls must have been the most free in the recent history of the State. Even the Army and the BSF soldiers who tried to hustle voters into election booths clarified that this time, they were not telling them which party to vote for.
But 'fair' does not follow as a natural corollary to 'free.' And, while the official figures look good in newspaper headlines, they do not tell the whole story. For, while many Kashmiris in the five districts that went to the polls on Monday came out to vote, despite fears of violence and reprisal, whole Assembly segments stayed indoors. Because they did not feel they were free to vote.
Fear, certainly, was a factor in some areas, where gruesome attacks on political activists days before the election were warnings that only the foolhardy would have ignored. Newspapers, such as the Nida-e-Mashriq, published threats from militant groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba, affirming that there were reasons for fear.
There was also the "why vote when there is no one to vote for" factor. Many voters, particularly in Baramulla district, felt that the election was meaningless since it excluded the political groups, which represented their aspirations. "If the Hurriyat was in the fray, we would vote," was the undercurrent to the single digit turnout in so much of Baramulla.
At polling booths across the Valley where people did turn out to vote, standing in long lines exposed to risks as against out of State officials in bullet-proof gear, one thing was clear: they were doing so for reasons which had nothing to do with New Delhi's. For the most, they wanted to vote the National Conference out (although few believed that it did not have the power to rig even the EVMs).
They wanted change, they said, from the politics of 'self-aggrandisement and corruption.' Some simply wanted more of the same. But almost no one saw the election as New Delhi has been seeing it - the beginning of the end of the troubles in Jammu and Kashmir.

Anjali Mody, The Hindu, September 18, 2002,
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2002/09/18/stories/2002091803871100.htm

People Want to Get Rid of NC: BJP

Claiming that the first phase of polling in Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections indicated that the people wanted the national conference out of power, union minister of state and senior BJP leader Chaman Lal Gupta today said his party has entered into a seat adjustment with the Jammu state morcha to avoid split in 'nationalist votes.'
"BJP is contesting 57 seats and has left nine seats for JSM for the sole purpose of avoiding a split in the votes of nationalist forces," he told reporters here. Gupta claimed that the first phase of voting indicated that the people wanted the NC out of power because of its 'bad governance.'
"In the present scenario BJP is all set to win a large number of seats and our party will play a major role in the formation of the new government," he claimed. "We have already predicted a hung assembly in the state after the polls." BJP is contesting the present elections with three main objectives of fighting out militancy and bringing peace in the state, removing discrimination against Jammu and Ladakh regions and to formulate people's opinion against "the non-performance of ruling NC," Gupta said.
Accusing NC and Congress of discriminating against the people of Jammu and Ladakh in the past, he said these parties were responsible for the present state of affairs. Though Gajinder Gadkar commission had recommended setting up of development boards for these regions long back, national conference and congress governments never implemented it.
Lauding people of border districts for showing enthusiasm to cast their votes in the first phase of polling despite pressures and threats, Gupta hoped of people's participation in the remaining phases also.

Outlook India, September 18, 2002,
http://www.outlookindia.com/pti_news.asp?id=84240

Kashmir Elections in U.S. Eyes

It would come as a shock to those who have remained stubborn in their belief, despite enough dissuading evidence, that our rediscovered friendship with the U.S. would help us protect our vital national interests, which New Delhi is bent upon striking at. A senior State Department official finds the first phase of Held Kashmir polls free and fair. Although neither confirmed nor denied by State's South Asia Bureau, he is quoted by the Press Trust of India as saying "the elections were free, there were one or two incidents but by and large there was no violence, participation was good; the elections were conducted in a good manner and there are no reports of intimidation." Each one of these observations is contrary to facts, which have been reported by CNN and BBC. These media icons of the West mentioned deserted polling booths and the almost universal complaint of those queued up for voting that they had been coerced and even beaten up by the Indian security personnel into acquiescence. The Indian media has itself admitted that turnout at Sopore was two percent as against nearly 40 percent in the 1996 elections, while in Sangarama and Bandipura the figures this time fell to 10 and 16 percent. To quote The Hindustan Times "hundreds were protesting being forced to vote (at Sopore)... the Indian security forces could still be seen knocking at the doors, asking people to vote. There were similar reports from Kupwara, Baramulla, Chogal, Haigan and Wadipura." It is not hard to discover the logic of this official's utterance. He cannot be unaware of these facts nor of the baleful influence the Indian armed forces' threatening presence would inevitably have on the polls' fairness in the downright repressive climate of Held Kashmir. The Bush Administration has been at pains to make the electoral charade a success. First it tried to persuade the APHC not to boycott and now that the farce has begun, it is telling the world that everything is hunky-dory with the Kashmiris who have opted for India in a free vote. Neither their basic right to decide their future enshrined in U.N. resolutions nor the vital interests of Pakistan have any value in U.S. eyes when measured against Indian friendship, which it perceives as fundamental to its strategic interests. India has also finally got clearance for the purchase of the Israeli AWACS, which will in itself disturb the regional military balance. Contrast this with the U.S. refusal to sell Pakistan even its decommissioned F-16A/Bs.

The Nation, Editorial, September 19, 2002,
http://www.syberwurx.com/nation/daily/today/editor/ed2.htm

Polls in Held Kashmir

The six-year term of the current state assembly in Occupied Kashmir will expire in October this year. Its administration has announced that the next elections will be held soon. The All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) has refused to participate in the forthcoming elections. It maintains that the poll exercise in the occupied territory had been initiated by India in 1951 only to mislead the world opinion by projecting it as a 'political processor' elections as a substitute for plebiscite.
It, therefore, adopted a resolution on March 30, 1951, stating that any such action 'would not constitute a disposition of the state' in accordance with the principle of a free and impartial plebiscite, to be conducted under the auspices of he United Nations as envisaged in its resolutions which were agreed to by Pakistan and India.
In a blatant violation of the U.N. Security Council resolution, a 'Kashmir Constituent Assembly' was, however, elected in September 1951 to which the National Conference candidates were returned unopposed in all but two constituencies in which they defeated the independent candidates. The 'Constituent Assembly' ratified Kashmir's accession to India on February 15, 1954, and thus the U.N. Security Council's apprehension came true.
The U.N. Security Council rejected the Constituent Assembly's ratification of Kashmir's accession to India and adopted yet another resolution on January 24, 1957, reaffirming the principle that the final disposition of Kashmir would be made through a plebiscite under U.N. auspices.
The sham elections of 1951 have been followed by many more similar farcical elections which were also boycotted by the APHC which objected to their being held by the Indian election commission under the Indian Constitution. The APHC's stand has been that the elections held under Indian occupation can neither be an expression of the Kashmiri people's free will nor can they be a substitute for the U.N.-supervised free and impartial plebiscite.
India claims that a plebiscite is no longer needed as the people of Kashmir have already expressed their will in the elections. This argument is not, however, tenable as the elections never offered to the people of Kashmir the choice of whether they wanted to accede to India or join Pakistan.
These elections cannot, therefore, be considered a substitute for a plebiscite pledged by both Pakistan and India to the international community. The mass uprising in the occupied Kashmir is, however, a manifestation of the Kashmir people's total rejection of the continued illegal occupation of their territory by India.
One fails to understand by what quirk of logic India claims Kashmir to be its integral part when it has been proved beyond a shadow of doubt that the majority of the Kashmiri people wants to have no truck with it. India also knows that its favourites in Occupied Kashmir rule from the sand bunkers despite the presence of more than 700,000 troops there. They cannot even move freely in the territory they are supposed to govern for fear of public wrath. Yet, India has the audacity to claim that Pakistan is fighting a proxy war in Kashmir, a hoax fabricated by it only to conceal the Kashmiri people's antipathy towards it and also to justify its repressive measures.
The people in Occupied Kashmir are so disenchanted with India that they have even rejected a costly development project that was announced by the Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, during his recent visit to Srinagar. The Kashmiri people described this project as an election gimmick only to woo the voters in anticipation of the forthcoming polls to the 'Kashmir Assembly.'
The people of Kashmir who have been cheated repeatedly through rigged elections feel betrayed and are outraged. They are convinced that through these 'elections,' India has attempted to dampen their demand for self-determination. India, however, remains insensitive to the sentiments of the Kashmiri people and proposes to hold another farcical election in September/October this year, in a yet another attempt to hoodwink the international community. The whole world, however, knows that all the previous 'elections' held in Occupied Kashmir have been manipulated. People were herded to the polling stations at gunpoint to cast their votes.
Apparently, India has not learnt any lesson from its past experience and continues to pursue its myopic policies as during the last fifty years or so. It does not realize that the drama of farcical elections enacted by it in Occupied Kashmir since 1951 has proved counter-productive. It has miserably failed to establish its credentials as a democratic and secular entity. Its consistent policy of hypocrisy, deceit and intimidation in Kashmir has backfired. Its obstinacy has become proverbial. Its state-sponsored terrorism and genocide in Kashmir have actually hardened the resolve of the Kashmiri people to struggle more vigorously for the attainment of their right to self-determination. The people of Kashmir are crying out for justice. They are neither terrorists nor 'separatists' as India portrays them.
India ought to realize that, because of its ruthless repression in Occupied Kashmir and other dilatory tactics, the Kashmir problem has been aggravated further. The suggestion once made by Mrs Gandhi to convert the Line of Control into a permanent border was rejected by the APHC as well as by Pakistan. Recently a senior Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader has put out a feeler that the state of Jammu and Kashmir may be divided into three parts. Such innovative and impracticable ideas would only complicate the matter further and should, therefore, be avoided. The only viable option for India is to give up its obduracy and take bold steps to resolve the Kashmir dispute on the basis of the U.N. Security Council resolutions which still are the only legal foundations for a just and honourable solution of this conflict.

Ghayoor Ahmed, Dawn, July 15, 2002,
http://www.dawn.com/2002/07/15/op.htm#2

Can Election be a Condition for Talks?

India in order to divert the attention of world from the freedom struggle of Kashmiris and their right of self-determination once again trying stage election drama in occupied Kashmir.
India has left no stone unturned in getting support of Europe and America for holding these so-called elections saying that before initiating and dialogue process, it is a must that prevailing tension India and Pakistan should be decreased, which according to here can be decreased by holding elections.
But as for reality is concern. Kashmiris have nothing with this so-called election, because these elections are of no importance to them they have been remained saying bad sighed and faults election for the last more then half century and these elections being held under Indian constitutions for administrative purposes hence no link with their right of self-determination for which they have sacrificed more then eighty thousand lives holding of election in occupied Kashmir is just a useless practice of India, as she wants to achieve some nefarious designs of her by doing this practices.
Some of her designs linked with these elections can be pin pointed as under:
By holding these elections, firstly India wants to through dust in the eyes of the world community that Kashmiris take part in the elections held under Indian constitutions, so they are with India. Secondly India wants peace is restored in Kashmir.
Thirdly Kashmiris is its interest issue and not an international one, because people are electing their government through vote fourthly India is getting as well killing the true so that she could release international processor by passage of time and confuse the world community by putting new and new condition on terrorism as she has really said that elections in Kashmir are the test case for Pakistan.
If the election are held peacefully dialogue process can be started otherwise dialogues are impossible and finally India want to maintain the continuity of confirmation of states so-called accession with India, the document of which (accession) she don't have with her and she was never in a position to produce such a document because of which the researchers have turned this a drama as well as a fraud.
Under such circumstances especially in views of India's Chankian tricks, there from world community especially from home of European countries and America who supports these election in occupied Kashmir that isn't a history.

Mian Karim Ullah Qureshi, Kashmir Today, September 6, 2002,
http://www.klc.org.pk/klc/feb202/art-5.html

Kashmir's Troubled Election

The Indian Government is determined that the elections which start on 16 September and continue in four phases with a result due in October, will be seen as free and fair. International credibility is very important and, with the Kashmir dispute being headline news for most of the past eight months, the profile of this troubled corner of the world is very high.
At the last State Assembly elections in Kashmir in 1996, there was a widespread boycott of the polls. It is impossible to accurately assess the extent of non-participation, but it was huge. There were no accurate records of electorate numbers, but the outcome gave plenty of evidence for critics of the Indian Government to claim that the polling results were not a true record of the wishes of the people of Kashmir. There was also evidence of people being rounded up by Indian security forces and taken to polling booths.
The separatist alliance of groups who do not want Kashmir to be part of India - the All Party Hurriyat Conference - have come under pressure from the government to participate in this round of elections. At one point this summer, it looked as though some of the 23-member organisations might put forward candidates. But the Hurriyat has decided to opt out, claiming they feared the votes would be rigged.
The Hurriyat also sees no 'bigger picture' to the political future of Kashmir. The elections could be stage one in a process, but they accuse the Indian Government of not having a long-term strategy for Kashmir. So they do not want to sign up to what many regard as a sham election. The non-participation of the Hurriyat has undermined the Indian Government's desire for any outcome to be seen as fully legitimate, and on top of that militant groups have said they will disrupt the elections.
Over the past few weeks attacks carried out in Kashmir by suspected Islamic militants have been portrayed as attempts to frighten potential voters and deter them from taking part.
And despite India's desire for international acceptance of its position on Kashmir, it has been resolute that there should be no foreign observers at the polls. India has said anyone is welcome to come, on a tourist visa, and have a look at what is going on. But there is no role for appointed foreign election observers.
India says it is a mature democracy (as well as being the largest one in the world) and does not need to be subject to international scrutiny. It is an easy mistake to assume that the election will be fought only over the 'Kashmir question' - its political status in India and the struggle with Pakistan.
There are many in Kashmir who believe that if the people of Kashmir get the autonomy they feel they need, then all Kashmir's problems will gradually be sorted out. But other voters will be looking at much more pressing local issues: jobs, investment, economic aid and human rights.
As elections loom, the National Conference - a member of the governing coalition of India, the National Democratic Alliance - always tries to put some distance between itself and the main party of the alliance, the Hindu nationalist BJP.
The president of the National Conference Party, Omar Abdullah, told the BBC he thinks India has underestimated the human rights grievances that many Kashmiris feel towards central government. Mr. Abdullah, who is also a minister in the national government, says this issue is one of the biggest hindrances to legitimate government in Kashmir.
Allegations of extra-judicial imprisonment, torture and harassment by Indian security forces are widespread.
Some Kashmiris feel they are victims of 'an occupying army.' But Kashmir is not just 'the Kashmir Valley.' The state is not entirely populated by Kashmiri Muslims. They make up 64% of the population (33% are Hindus and 3% are Buddhists). But it is how the Kashmiri Muslims vote - indeed whether they vote - that will be most closely watched in the coming weeks.

Adam Mynott, BBC, September 14, 2002,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/2216525.stm

Army Commander Denies Coercion in J&K Election

Lieutenant General Vinayak Gopal Patankar, general officer commanding, 15 Corps, has dismissed all allegations of security forces coercing voters to cast their ballots in the first phase of polling in Jammu & Kashmir on Monday.
"There is no question of the army coercing or forcing people," Gen Patankar told rediff.com at his office in the highly fortified 15 Corps headquarters in Srinagar on Tuesday evening while discussing the security scenario and election-related developments in the Kashmir Valley. "I had no such reports of coercion from my officers."
The general, who is also security adviser to the state government and chief of the unified command headquarters in the valley, said a key reason for the low level of violence in the first phase was the army's recent successes in foiling infiltration from across the border.
The security forces, he said, had been watching the situation for a long time and had identified the high-risk areas correctly. "We made sure that by virtue of our deployment we didn't allow terrorists to disrupt the polls," he said.
"The army's task," Gen Patankar explained, "was to create a safe environment in which elections could be conducted. And that is what we have done."
The army was on high alert to foil infiltration attempts. In fact, in the six weeks from August 1 to September 16, the troops made as many as 75 'kills' in counter-infiltration alone. This, the general said, was one of the highest ratios of militants killed along the Line of Control.
He dismissed reports of security forces, especially the army, forcing people to the polling booths in parts of Kupwara and Baramulla districts. "All we told the people is that we are out here, have no fear, we will take care of any problem, you don't have to worry. That is where it ended." He said he had not received a single complaint of coercion by his men.
In the next three phases too, the army will "stick to our brief of making the environment as safe from terrorist violence as possible." Polling percentages and the like are for political parties to worry about, he remarked.
"There is a lot of fervour, people want to come out and vote," Gen Patankar said. "People will participate. As far as we are concerned, we will do our part."
He said the security forces had tried to be as transparent as possible in their conduct. The unified headquarters, coordinating body for all security forces in the valley, has been issuing press statements after every meeting. The Election Commission has also been briefed in detail about the security measures.
"As security adviser I have conveyed to all the security forces that this is our brief, this is our duty, to ensure that people feel free to come out and vote," the corps commander said.

Josy Joseph, Rediff, September 18, 2002,
http://www.rediff.com/election/2002/sep/17jk8.htm

Lessons of the Kashmir Elections

The polling figures after the first round of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly election show that massive abstention, for fear of the gun or in pursuance of the boycott call issued by the All-Party Hurriyat Conference, has not happened. But it would be equally wrong for the Central Government to make the arrogant assumption that alienation in Kashmir has evaporated and that the bureaucratic functioning of old can be continued as before.
As it is, the situation during the pre-election period was not handled properly by the Centre, whether knowingly or unknowingly. Otherwise, this election could have been the prelude to a final settlement. But the opportunity was certainly wasted by New Delhi, assisted by the Hurriyat Conference and some other groups. And, any worthwhile discussion between India and Pakistan is now not even a distant possibility. Whatever little chance there may have been for Indo-Pakistan talks was buried by the slanging match before the whole world at the United Nations.
Prior to fixing the election dates, the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and his deputy, L.K. Advani, had announced their willingness to hold talks with all groups but finally the elections were announced without this happening. This naturally compelled the Hurriyat Conference and others to refuse to participate in the elections. Even at that stage, Shabir Shah and others were practical enough to announce their willingness to participate in the polls provided Mr. Vajpayee or Mr. Advani agreed to commence talks. But they refused and a poll boycott ensued. Whether these groups would have participated in the elections after the talks may be questioned but now the Centre has provided them an alibi.
One reason given by the Government for holding early elections is said to have been the intelligence assessment that Pakistan's capacity for cross-border terrorism would be lessened because of the elections in that country. This assessment defies logic. Elections in Pakistan would rather be a compulsion for Islamabad to intensify its activities. Elections in Jammu and Kashmir after the Pakistani elections would have placed less pressure on the Musharraf regime to play to the gallery.
I wonder whether the Centre's snub of the groups in the Kashmir Valley is not part of a drama based on the undisclosed acceptance by the Government of India of the United States-sponsored Kashmir Study Group's suggestion for trifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir and for making the Valley a kind of sovereign unit.
I believe the RSS has evolved an election strategy in collusion with the BJP where it will openly whip up anti-Muslim hysteria keeping in view the coming elections in Gujarat and, if successful, early general elections.
Separation of the Kashmir Valley also suits the U.S. and its multinational corporations. Even Pervez Musharraf may go along because he could boast that though the Line of Control (LoC) is being agreed to as the international border, he has succeeded in separating the Valley from India and will also have a hand in the pie by being joint guarantor for its defence. But public opinion in India will never accept this because it will strike at the root of our secularism. My suspicions are aroused when Kofi Annan, U.N. Secretary-General, has for the first time gratuitously said that the situation between two nuclear capable countries in South Asia remains perilous and "if a fresh crisis erupts, the international community might have a role to play."
Surprising is this approach considering that Dixon, even in his controversial report (1950) to the U.N., had this to say: "It is perhaps best that the initiative should now pass back to the parties. I am not myself prepared to recommend any further course of action on the part of the Security Council for the purpose of assisting the parties to settle between them how the State of Jammu and Kashmir is to be disposed of."
The mildly satisfactory polling should not deceive the Government of India into assuming that people's resentment has vanished - it has not even lessened. Voters have expressed their deep disgust with the present set-up in Kashmir and it is a voice against the violation of human rights.
Even though the people had voted ignoring terrorists bullets, they went to the accompaniment of slogans for 'Azadi' and to show anger at Farooq Abdullah. It is necessary that the Centre should draw the correct lessons and not delude itself into assuming that it has solved the Kashmir problem.
Though the BJP has said that it will after the elections talk to the elected representatives, it should not refuse also to talk to those groups that had not participated. That would be a costly mistake.
The only practicable solution is for the LoC to be made the international border and to concede pre-1953 status to Jammu and Kashmir, with regional autonomy to the three regions - Jammu, Ladakh and Kashmir. This would mean that apart from foreign affairs, defence, communications and currency, other subjects would be left with the State Government. This will be a proper recognition of the reality of the situation and will also give the people a sense of participation in the mainstream.
There is a panicky over-reaction against agreeing to a pre-1953 status. The rights of individuals and the privileges of the minorities, especially Kashmiri Pandits, in the matter of religion and language will be constitutionally guaranteed. The Supreme Court will continue to have appellate jurisdiction and act as a sentinel to safeguard fundamental rights. Any funds given by the Centre will necessarily be under the scrutiny of the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India. For those in Jammu and Kashmir wanting to enter Central Services, the jurisdiction of the Union Public Service Commission has to be maintained. In an extreme case, the defence power of the Centre can be invoked to ensure that the State Government carries out its constitutional obligations towards the minorities.
Thus, a flow of freedom will be felt by the youth and an overwhelming number of people of Jammu and Kashmir if they are given this internal autonomy. They will have the satisfaction of knowing that their struggle has not been in vain and that the imbalance that had crept into Centre-State relations has been corrected.
It is axiomatic that while no Union Government can agree to an independent Kashmir, no group in the Valley can possible agree to anything less than a pre-1953 status, if a permanent, peaceful solution is to be found. Immediately after elections, the Government of India should initiate talks not only with the elected representatives but also other groups.

Rajindar Sachar, the Hindu, September 21, 2002,
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2002/09/21/stories/2002092100351000.htm

The First Phase of Kashmir's Elections

On 16th September the first phase of elections was held in the Indian occupied Kashmir (IOK). The first phase of elections covered five districts of Poonch and Rajori in Jammu region and Baramulla, Kupwara, and Sopor in the Valley. The next phase of elections is scheduled to be held on 24th September and would cover districts of Srinagar, Badgam and Jammu. The four-phased elections were designed to facilitate the task of the security forces. Given the ongoing freedom struggle in Kashmir as well as the accompanying violence from three major sources (the major source being the Indian security forces activities), it is quite comprehensible why the elections are conducted in a phased manner. Three distinct characteristics of the current polls in Kashmir deserve comments and need to be highlighted; the voting percentage, the accelerated intimidation process in this elections and some aspects of pre-poll rigging.
Almost all major international media networks seem to have reported that the voting turn out was dismally low. In some areas it was less than 2%. Compared to Valley districts, the voting in Jammu's two districts was relatively better though not as high as the India media has claimed and projected. According to a report published in The Nation (17th September 2002), "a huge false media campaign is being run to show everything is going smoothly and people are eager to participate" in these elections. Of course this is not surprising. All one has to do is to compare the factual developments that took place in Kargil's border clash and the projections made in the Indian media in order to find the distortions and exaggerations. One has to give credit to over patriotic as well as over enthusiastic India media for making effective contributions in projecting its government's official handouts. The current researches regarding the Kargil border clashes published both inside as well as outside India clearly refute what the Indian media projected at the time of the crisis.
It needs to be pointed out that the India officials including the Prime Minister seem to be satisfied with what has been reported by the Indian official sources which is around 44 % voters turn out. The spokesperson of both the Indian Foreign office and the BJP went to the extent of asserting that the people have rejected the boycott call of All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) and threats made by what the Indians refer as the militants. This assertion is indeed not based upon factual situation and the election related developments. According to many independent sources the turn out was not only miserably low but also in many area the security forces actively forced the Kashmiris to go to the polling booths.
Just before the IOK elections, a prestigious think tank of India conducted a survey to find out what percentage is likely to participate in the elections. The findings of this particular think tank were no different than what has been asserted over and over again not just within the region but also in other parts of the world that the voting percentage is going to be extremely low. Roughly about 70% reported that they would not participate in the elections. Admittedly one cannot take the findings of one survey as gospel truth but when the result seem to be much closer to others findings, one begin to acknowledge the general direction of the incumbent trends.
Another intriguing aspect that was highlighted by the Indian survey was that the participants were asked what were their overriding considerations for not participating in the elections. While 81% stated that bad governance was real reasons for their apathy, 74% stressed that it was useless to participate because the National Conference will rig the elections in any case. Such was the prevalent sentiments among the voters. Yet the Indian official sources indicate that the voting was reasonably high.
The glaringly visible aspect of this election is the accelerated intimidation process. For obvious reasons the very presence of over 700,000 security forces by it is viewed as a major intimidating factor, the acceleration of intimidation had started soon after the 9/11 and in recent times had acquired alarming proportion. Since the APHC has boycotted the elections and stressed that elections are no substitute for plebiscite, a vast majority of its supporters decided to stay away from the polling. But many Kashmiris were compelled by the security forces to cast their votes. Stories of coercions and intimidations were published in many local, regional and international newspapers. Many Kashmiris were dragged out of their homes and forced to cast votes. The soldiers actually threatened to check the fingers in the evening in order to ascertain whether or not the people have gone to vote and threatened to cut their fingers if there were no marks of indelible ink.
M. Mushtaq and his sister were drinking tea when the soldiers burst into their home and said bluntly that the voters turn out was low and they could not accept that (The News, September 19, 2002). It has also been reported that the soldiers go around various villages and threaten people of dire consequences if they did not vote. The soldiers went to a village called Chogal which, is known be favouring the freedom fighters, but they were only able to force 15 votes out of a total of possible of 900 voters.
The third aspect that deserves some comments deals with two aspects of pre-poll rigging; the electoral rolls and the identity cards. It has been frequently reported that the applications for the identity cards (ID) of those who are not supportive of the National Conference are not given due considerations. In fact it has been reported that very few ID has been issued to those who do not support the Abdullah family's dynastic rule whereas the supporters of NC can get the cards almost soon after the submission of their applications. Denying card to those who are against NC implies weakening the strength of opposing parties.
Another discrepancy, which has been highlighted by popular Indian newspapers, is about the electoral rolls. It is reported that the population of Kashmir is about 54.4%. Whereas the listed votes in the electoral roll are about 25.5 lacs. But the population of the Jammu region is 43.9% of the total population whereas the number of voters registered is 28.7 lacs. This mean that while Kashmir's population is higher but the registered voters are less. This can of course be justified in terms assessment based on voter's ages. It could be possible that the Kashmir may have more people whose ages is less than requisite voter's age limit. However it needs to be stressed that many voters have complained that their names have been deliberately omitted from the electoral rolls.
Another allegation that has been repeatedly appearing in the pages of newspapers is regarding the posting and transfer of officials supportive of National Conference to key positions. Most of the independent minded officials were more or less sidelined. Again this is not a very unusual phenomenon in the subcontinent's history. Any close scrutiny of developments prior to the actual elections could reveal such happenings.
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of India's Kashmir policy is the quick change of its tune. By most accounts it has been stressed that the violence level was far below the expected level. Most of the violence was the product of activities undertaken by the Indian security forces rather than either by the freedom fighters or outside elements. Whatever the result of the elections, it is universally acknowledged that the elections don't really address the core dispute.
Prior to the elections, the APHC as well as independent sources were predicting that the voting percentage is likely to be low but according to Indian official sources the voting has been around 44%, which indeed, if true, is rather impressive. In the last Kashmir elections of 1996 India claimed that the turn out was 45% but the independent sources observers estimated it in between 5-8% (Time, Sept.16, 2002). Perhaps that's why the independent observers are not allowed to monitor the elections this time. Whatever the Indians may claims, most accounts that are coming out of the IOK clearly points towards the listless nature of these elections.

Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema, The News, September 22, 2002,
http://www.jang-group.com/thenews/sep2002-daily/22-09-2002/oped/o3.htm

Kashmir Polls: Flop or a Partial Success?

The second phase of elections in Kashmir was held on September 24. Different reports depicted different pictures. While the turnout varied from place to place, it was generally low. Nevertheless the Indian media claimed that the voter turnout ranged between 42% and 51%. The reports emanating from international sources are indicating mixed response though generally on the lower side.
During the second phase of elections, the polling was held in the districts of Srinagar, Badgam and Jammu. Almost all media reports indicated a very low voter turnout in Srinagar district. Srinagar city itself wore a deserted look on the polling day. The entire city was shut down. According to Indian Express, "People preferred to stay indoor and polling booths were generally deserted but that was nothing unusual for the city. The post-1990 poll scene in the city has traditionally been one of low voter turnout."
"Nobody has so far come to vote, a poll official was reported as saying in the heart of Srinagar by early afternoon," reported BBC News on the polling day. According to Khaleej Times, Srinagar virtually boycotted the polls with streets and suburb remaining totally deserted till late in the evening. However, the other parts of the district witnessed scant election activities. In one or two constituencies there were some people who went to vote but overall the turnout in this district was indeed dismal.
Compared to Srinagar district, voting in the Badgam district was relatively higher. However, this does not imply that the voting turnout was impressive by any standards. Nevertheless there were some electioneering activities in the city of Badgam. Reasonable queues were reported at Badgam. Perhaps the most interesting contest was between National Conference (NC) candidate Aga Roohullah and his former NC colleague and a close relative Aga Mahmood who had also remained a minister. Most of the other areas remained quiet. While the Indian sources are putting the voting percentage near 35% in Badgam, the independent sources listed it far below that figure.
The third district where the elections were held on September 24 was the district of Jammu. Jammu is a Hindu dominated area. The Indian sources are indicating that the voter's turnout in Jammu had been little over 50%. According to Deccan Herald the border areas like Akhnoor, Samba and Chhamb recorded a fairly high voting percentage. It was expected in some quarters that the district of Jammu would record massive voting but it did not live up to the augured expectations.
Linked with the voting pattern is the continuous accusation of threats and intimidation by both sides. Many Indian officials have repeatedly put out statements that many voters did not turnout to vote because they were subjected to some kind of threats issued by the freedom fighters.
A report by an Indian Newspaper The Times of India reflecting the views of an official of Italian Embassy highlighted the hollowness of such arguments. The official is reported to have stated that he saw no evidence of militant threats or fear of terrorists during his travels.
Compared to often drum up propaganda of the India that the freedom fighters had issued death threats to those who would participate in the current elections, the activities of the security forces need massive doses of corrective injections rather immediately. According to The Indian Express "a major of Rashtriya Rifles along with his men in an armoured vehicle was seen to be herding the villagers to take them to the polling booth. It was also reported that local boy using local mosque's loud speaker said, Major sahib has asked me to tell you that if there aren't 200 people at the booth in 10 minutes, we will go to every home and force everybody out with our guns and lathis." The Indian Express further reported that their team saw the security forces go house to house while the Major planted himself at the polling booth.
Similar stories have been somewhat regularly reported in both the local Indian as well as in the international media. It is indeed creditable that some of the Indian media people are reporting how the security forces are intimidating the voters. Despite the active involvement of the security forces in forcing the voters and issuing all kinds of threats accompanying dire consequences, the voters clearly demonstrated their apathy for the elections. In some areas people gathered not for participating in the elections but expressing their desire for plebiscite.
Despite regularly expressed the overwhelming desire of the people of Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) that they wand to exercise their right of self determination, the Indians have opted to disregard the wishes of people and have gone in for another elections. One needs not to look too deeply into the history of elections in IOK to find out whether or not there ever was a free and fair election held in the IOK. Sufficient evidence exists to prove that the holding of elections in IOK is an exercise in futility. But then at this stage two important questions need to be responded. Why do the Indians insist on elections and dismiss the plebiscite, which was promised to the Kashmiris in the U.N. resolutions? Why is voter's turnout important?
The simple answer to the above mentioned first question is that the Indians hope to tell the international community that every thing is fine in IOK and what ever trouble that exists is the product of its estranged neighbour. They also tend to project that Kashmir is a territorial dispute and Pakistan wants to grab it. This, of course, is not true. The Kashmir dispute is indeed an unfinished agenda of partition processes. Unlike other trouble spots of India, Kashmir dispute originated at the time of partition and since then it has been influencing the relationships between India and Pakistan. Opting to hold plebiscite implies taking a major risk of losing the state. It is a foregone conclusion that in view of long oppressive Indian hold over IOK and the brutalities committed by the Indian security forces over the years, the thoroughly alienated Kashmiris are unlikely to vote to stay with India.
Holding elections, by all yardsticks, is considered to be an important part of democratic processes. But then no Pakistani has ever objected to it. All they are saying that Kashmir is an internationally recognised dispute between the two countries and since the Kashmiris have been promised to exercise their right of self-determination through a U.N supervised plebiscite, let the Kashmiris be allowed to exercise what has been promised to them in resolutions passed by the U.N. By holding elections repeatedly does not invalidates the U.N. resolutions.
The second question deals with usefulness of higher voting percentage. A higher voter percentage could be and would be interpreted by the Indians as an indication of peoples' contentment with India. It would also reflect who enjoys more influence and popularity within IOK. If the voting percentage were high, it would be projected as a negative vote for the freedom fighters. In other words, it would be projected that most people in IOK are not favouring freedom from India and would prefer to live under the existing environment. In short the freedom movement would be projected as having failed. Low voting percentage reflects peoples' disenchantment and discontentment with the incumbent situation and strengthens the freedom struggle.
The Indian propaganda machinery is working extra hours to project that the voting in the first two phases of the Kashmir elections was reasonably high. Following the first leg of elections, the figures highlighted by the Indian officials were ranging from 44 to 47 percentages. Now the India officials are saying the voting percentage in the second phase of elections was around 42%. However, the non-Indian observers have totally different figures. Generally, it is believed that voting has been less than 10% with the exception of Jammu where it seems that the voting was considerably higher than other regions of the IOK.
The announced higher percentage of votes could be the product of known election rigging more specifically by the state officials. The state officials of IOK are too well known to have regularly indulged in such type of mal practices. Already so many allegations have already been levelled against them regarding pre-poll riggings. However disallowing the presence of international monitors has further facilitated the process of rigging by the central government of India. Many Indians often argue that the presence of some of the Delhi based Embassy officials is just as good as the presence of international monitors. Nothing can be further from the truth. The Embassy officials are not really trained to monitor elections processes. Besides even if they detect rigging, they are unlikely to highlight while living and working in the Delhi based embassies.
By all accounts it seems that the people of IOK have responded rather positively to the appeals by All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC). Perhaps that is why the APHC officials have publicly thanked the people of IOK for positively responding to their appeals. Given the available reports of second phase of elections in IOK, it is not too far fetched to assume that this has also been another flop. At best it can be viewed as a partial success if you only focus on elections in Jammu itself.

Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema, The News, September 29, 2002,
http://www.jang-group.com/thenews/sep2002-daily/29-09-2002/oped/o4.htm

India-Pakistan - Kashmir Elections, the Final Stretch: Special Report

Assessment: The 4-phased Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) assembly polls are three-quarters complete, with the third phase taking place on 1 October. Militant violence was higher during the third phase than in the previous two phases, and attacks probably will continue in the run up to the final phase of polling on 8 October. New Delhi's goal is to legitimise its rule in J&K by giving at least the appearance of free and representative polls, however, the elections are unlikely to address Kashmiri political aspirations. Increased militant activity in J&K and terrorist attacks in India will keep tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad high. India may consider limited military operations across the Line-of-Control between mid-October and early December in response to perceived Pakistani 'intransigence,' a course of action that risks full-scale war. Meanwhile, much of the international community hopes relatively smooth J&K elections eventually will pave the way for future India-Pakistan dialogue.
Background: Indian-administered elections for the 87-member J&K Legislative Assembly started on 16 September amid reinforced security and significant international scrutiny. The Election Commission (EC) of India organized the polling into four phases. The first two phases occurred on 16 and 24 September. The third phase was held on 1 October, and the final phase is scheduled for 8 October. The EC plans to announce election results on 12 October.
Discussion: Despite the EC's attempts to introduce 'confidence-building' measures ahead of the J&K elections, there were still reports of electoral fraud and voter coercion by the Indian Army and other security force personnel. Overall, voter turnout has declined since the 1996 elections. The EC reported an average voter turnout of 47% for the first phase of the elections, which incorporated Kupwara, Baramulla, Poonch, and Rajouri districts [traditionally insurgency-affected areas], the Shia Muslim-dominated Kargil district, and the Buddhist-majority district of Leh. Average voter turnout for the second phase of the elections was approximately 40.6%. The second phase incorporated Srinagar district - the 'heart' of the Kashmir Valley and the center of the Kashmiri independence movement, Jammu district - which has a majority Hindu population, and Budgam district - which has a significant Shia Muslim community. The third phase of elections included the districts of Anantnag and Pulwama in the Kashmir Valley, considered emerging 'centers' of militant activity, as well as the Hindu-majority Udhampur and Kathua districts in the Jammu region. Average voter turnout was reported at 41% for the third phase. The final phasing of polling will take in Doda district, another area of heavy militant activity.

The Virtual Information Center, Executive Summary, October 1, 2002,
http://www.vic-info.org/

Upsurge in Kashmir Violence

At least 12 people have been killed in the latest violence in Indian-administered Kashmir as the territory enters the last leg of elections for a new assembly. The Indian army says it killed eight militants who tried to cross into Indian Kashmir from Pakistani-held territory - an army officer also died in the incident.
Three others - a police officer and two suspected militants - were killed in a gun battle in a southern district of the state. The violence comes just a day after 10 people died in attacks by suspected militants. The final stage of voting, which has been staggered for security reasons, takes place next Tuesday.
The Indian authorities are determined to make the elections a success. However, militant groups fighting against Indian rule have attacked those taking part, and most separatist bodies are boycotting the poll.
Indian army troops challenged eight rebels in the district of Poonch, near the Line of Control, which divides Indian and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, a spokesman said. An exchange of fire followed in which all eight rebels and an army captain were killed.
In a separate incident in the border district of Kathua in the south, two suspected militants were killed in a fierce gun battle with Indian security forces which began late on Wednesday. A police officer died in the exchange which took place near the site of an attack on a bus earlier this week, during voting for the third phase of elections.
Security forces have cordoned the area and are looking for any militants who may have got away. With security measures heightened, the authorities announced on Thursday that they had arrested Shabir Zargar, the head of a now defunct militant group.
A spokesperson for India's Border Security Force (BSF) said Mr. Zargar had been arrested in Srinagar after the recovery of a cache of arms and ammunition, allegedly in his possession.
The BSF also said he was wanted in connection with attacks on the security forces in Srinagar. However, his family have denied the allegations. They say he is a member of a separatist political party, and severed all ties with militants two years ago.
Militant groups have been fighting against Indian rule in Kashmir for more than a decade. India says they are actively supported by Pakistan, something which Islamabad always denies.

BBC, October 3, 2002,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/2294801.stm

Kashmir Polls

Violence and bloodshed has hounded the four-phase sham election in Held Kashmir, right from the start. On Sunday, as the final phase was underway, 10 more people, mostly pro-government activists, and three Indian soldiers were killed, taking the total death toll of political activists up to 42 since the elections were announced in August. This was but expected. The political climate in Held Kashmir is charged with demands for independence. Representative groups like APHC have been urging New Delhi to resume a dialogue with Pakistan to resolve the issue. At the other end is a BJP government wedded to its hard-line stand and its extremist coalition partners.
New Delhi had apparently worked out a two-pronged strategy to fog the Kashmir issue. Hold an election, which as it turns out, no one takes seriously, except the U.S. State Department, which has described it, for reasons best known to itself, as free and fair. The 45 per cent turnout figure being quoted by New Delhi has been rejected by most independent reports with some claiming that it is as low as four per cent. This public rebuff is understandable since the election agenda has no relevance to the issues at hand. People are being asked to elect New Delhi loyalists to manage civic works in Held Kashmir while the Kashmiris are going through the convulsions of a freedom struggle against the brutalities of a huge Indian army and its security forces. The other BJP plan to keep Islamabad quiet and on the defensive through a barrage of accusations on cross-border terrorism and even threats of a pre-emptive strike, will not work either. As repeatedly pointed out, India may like to ape Washington, but it is not the U.S. and nowhere near being a superpower of that stature.
New Delhi must not also delude itself that it can lend legitimacy to its occupation of Kashmir by creating a puppet assembly of unrepresentative loyalists, through an election, which the Kashmiris have so overwhelmingly rejected. The plan is doomed because, as a Kashmiri leader Syed Faiz Naqshbandi has pointed out, 'elections are no substitute for a plebiscite.' They cannot be and New Delhi's failed experiment has proved it.

The Nation, Editorial, October 8, 2002,
http://www.syberwurx.com/nation/daily/today/editor/editor.htm

830 Killed in Kashmir Since Start of Polls

At least 830 people have been killed in Kashmir since August 2, when dates for state assembly elections were announced, Kashmir's police chief said Tuesday.
Ashok Suri said of the total, 370 were Islamic militants, around 50 were political activists - including two candidates - 150 were security force personnel and 260 were civilians.
Suri said that some 500 civilians and 213 security force personnel had been injured in the past two months.
The fourth and the final round of voting was held Tuesday in violence-prone south-eastern Doda district, where militants staged a daring attack on a voting station soon after polls opened, killing two policemen and injuring two others. One of the militants was shot dead.
The first two rounds, on September 16 and September 24 passed off relatively peacefully, but the third round a week ago was particularly bloody, with attacks on a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims and the bombing of a security force vehicle adding to a death toll of close to 20.
Suri complimented the security forces on affording protection to voters and contestants during the election process. He said during the period more than 2,000 election rallies were held all over the scenic Himalayan region.

Sify News, October 8, 2002,
http://news.sify.com/cgi-bin/sifynews/news/content/news

BJP may Tie Up with NC

With the last round of polling over in Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP leadership has begun to consider the possibility of supporting a government led by the National Conference.
They are moving under the assumption that the NC may fall short of the halfway mark in the 87-member state assembly. This, even though the state unit of the BJP is bitterly opposed to the NC.
A senior BJP leader said: "If the NC does not secure a majority, it will be good for the state as it will end the stranglehold of the Abdullah dynasty and the BJP's participation would give it a national look."
With the elections finally over with a reasonable degree of success (with an average polling rate of 40 per cent, just 10 per cent less than the national average), the BJP-led NDA government's next task, sources said, is to convince its critics that it is doing enough to tackle terrorism.
This has acquired urgency, with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a Parivar affiliate, at the forefront of some sharp criticism of the government over the last 10 days.
However, there is an understanding in the BJP that though the VHP's strident - and repeated - attack on the BJP-led government for its 'failure' in dealing with terrorism has been somewhat intemperate, it is not entirely unjustified.
"The VHP leaders are reflecting the frustrations of the common man, who feels that the government is unable to control terrorism," said a senior BJP leader.
He said it is now for the BJP to explain to the people that the issue of terrorism cannot be looked at in isolation but along with at least three other issues: the significance of free and fair elections in J&K in convincing the international community that the people of the state would like to stay with India and, therefore, diminishing the importance of terrorist outfits; the role that this understanding could lead to the 'isolation' of Pakistan internationally; and underlining the fact that the security forces are doing an extremely tough job.
Indeed, this is one of the messages of the BJP's 'gaon chalo' programme, already underway, its mandate being to explain the government's 'achievements.'

Smita Gupta, The Times of India, October 09, 2002,
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/articleshow?artid=24594068

With a Burst of Violence, Voting Ends in Kashmir

With a final spasm of violence, voting in Kashmir's pivotal election - staggered over three weeks to improve security - concluded today.
Waves of attacks by anti-Indian militants who had vowed to disrupt the voting have taken more than 450 lives since the polling dates were announced two months ago, Indian officials said tonight. Of those, almost 50 were political workers, including two candidates, 150 were members of the security forces and at least 260 were bystanders.
Kashmir, a majority-Muslim region claimed by both India and Pakistan, has been the site of a Pakistan-backed rebellion since 1989. The rivals, both nuclear armed, have danced toward war this year over Pakistan's support for anti-Indian militants.
Indian and American officials, who are concerned about rising tensions in the region, have framed the assembly election in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir as essential to moving the peace effort forward.
The hope is that a more representative state government will open the door for dialogue - between Kashmiris and the Indian government, and between India and Pakistan.
A rigged election in 1987 helped incite the insurgency, and ever since, polls have largely been boycotted in a show of support for separatism.
But this year Indian officials went to great lengths to protect the election process, and their efforts dovetailed with a renewed enthusiasm among voters motivated by antipathy to the state's ruling National Conference.
In what seemed to be a reaction to an energized electorate, militants stepped up their threats and their attacks. Today was no exception: it began with an assault on the town hall in Doda, northeast of Jammu, that left one suspect and two members of the security forces dead.
Despite this, half an hour later, voters calmly lined up to cast their ballots. "I really felt very proud of the people of the state," the chief secretary of Jammu and Kashmir, I.S. Malhi, said tonight.
The turnout today, according to available returns, was 52 percent in Doda district and 44 percent in the Lolab constituency, where voting had been postponed after one of the candidates, the state's law minister, was assassinated last month. The average turnout over the four phases of voting was about 44 percent, according to Pramod Jain, the state's chief electoral officer.
But the turnout varied dramatically from place to place. Rural areas voted much more heavily than did cities and towns, which in many cases observed a near total boycott. The state's Hindu areas voted more than Muslim regions.
The counting and announcement of results will not take place until Thursday, although it is widely anticipated that the National Conference will not retain its absolute majority.
Who wins has been seen as only one measure of the election's success. The process itself has been equally important, particularly whether it is seen as free and fair.
In addition to concerns about rigging, there were worries that the security forces would force people to the polls to ensure a respectable turnout, as they had in the past.
There were some instances of coercion by the security forces this year but much less than in the past, according to observers. There were also no serious allegations of ballot-stuffing, thanks to electronic voting machines, which were used for the first time in the state.
Even some of those who chose not to take part conceded that the election had been an improvement over past years. "I would definitely agree with the fact that this time there was not much force or coercion used," said Umar Farooq, a respected separatist leader.
But, he said, the Indian government had not met the separatists' conditions for participation - that they be exempted from taking an oath under the Indian Constitution and that the election be monitored by international observers.

Amy Waldman, The New York Times, October 9, 2002, http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/09/international/asia/09KASH.html

Ruling Party Routed in Kashmir Polls

Indian-sponsored elections in Jammu and Kashmir, applauded also by the United States, appeared to recoil on New Delhi on Thursday as they returned an emphatic verdict against the region's two main warmongers, the National Conference group and the Bharatiya Janata Party, both partners in India's ruling National Democratic Alliance.
A coalition of the recently-formed Peoples's Democratic Party, which won 15 of the Kashmir assembly's 87 seats and the Congress party with 21 MLAs, both votaries of talks with Pakistan, appeared headed to form a patchwork government. They are likely to get enough support from among 22 small groups or independents to clear the 44 seats required for majority.
The Jammu and Kashmir National Conference suffered the biggest blow in the Gandarbal constituency of Srinagar from where its party president and India's junior foreign minister, Omar Abdullah, was defeated by a margin in excess of 3,000 votes.
Abdullah said his party would sit in the opposition. Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, Omar's father, had advocated the bombing of what he claimed to be militant camps across the Line of Control, but later switched to the inevitability of talks approach with Pakistan.
The other major loser in the polls was Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party, which lost all its previously held seats except one, mostly to the Congress in Jammu.
Former Indian Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed of the PDP and the Congress party's Ghulam Nabi Azad were in the fray for the chief minister's job, neither having contested the polls. Both the parties have advocated peace talks with Pakistan as an absolute necessity for peace in Kashmir.
The BJP-National Conference combination, on the other hand, was seen by many international observers as having brought South Asia to the edge of a nuclear war earlier this year.
Most politicians led by Prime Minister Vajpayee sought to interpret the polls as an anti-Pakistan verdict because of an unexpected voter turnout. The All Parties Hurriyat Conference and other assorted groups opposing Indian rule in Kashmir did not participate.
A sole candidate from the breakaway faction of the slain leader Abdul Ghani Lone's party appeared to be the only one to have participated in the polls without accepting the finality of Indian rule in Kashmir. He won the election.
In a message released by the foreign ministry in New Delhi, Vajpayee, currently in Europe, said: "The people of Jammu and Kashmir have given their verdict. And the winner, clearly, is India's democracy. Both before and during the course of the elections to the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, I had stated that irrespective of which candidate or party won, the vote would be for India's unity, integrity and democracy, it would be a vote for Kashmiriyat, and it would be a vote against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism and Pakistan's anti-India propaganda. Our stand has been resoundingly vindicated both by people's enthusiastic participation and by the outcome of the polls. Before the start of the electoral process, we had pledged that the elections would be free and fair. This promise, too, has been fulfilled. Braving the reign of terror unleashed by Pakistan-backed terrorist outfits, and disregarding the call for boycott of the polls, the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh participated in the elections in large numbers."
Vajpayee sent his "hearty congratulations to the courageous and patriotic people of all the three regions of the state. I would also like to assure that the center would work in close cooperation with the elected representatives in Srinagar to fulfil the aspirations of the people."

Jawed Naqvi, Dawn, October 11, 2002,
http://www.dawn.com/2002/10/11/top15.htm

Spring in Autumn?

The people of J&K have long wanted to tell the nation a few home truths but they were not heard for the most part. They have, therefore, chosen the recently-concluded elections in the state to speak out and at least this time the nation, and more specifically those preparing to put forward their claims to form the next government in the state, must listen and respond.
If this chance is missed, the nation would have lost one more precious opportunity to help set things right in the beleaguered region. Because if there is one message that emerges from the verdict of these polls it is that people want azaadi, but most of all azaadi from a non-governing government, from an indifferent administration, from unimplemented planning and from a system that is so corrupt that it has no credibility.
So busy have we been in claiming J&K as an inalienable part of the country that we have done little about ending the alienation of its people, an aspect that Pakistan has exploited to the hilt. The search for autonomy and identity is certainly one significant reason for this alienation and handling it is a complex business that will take time.
But the alienation has also arisen out of decades of indifferent and cynical political practice and this we can and should address. Even going by the scanty data we have of this region, it is clear that J&K is by no means a 'backward' state. It has a high level of literacy, is comparatively less poor than the rest of India - 25 per cent of the population live below the poverty line here as compared to the all-India figure of 36 per cent according to one estimate - and the people are generally healthier with an infant mortality rate of 45 as compared to the all-India level of 72.
But then just refer to the figures on the gross industrial output or the daily factory employment and they tell another story entirely. Here, even a state like Himachal Pradesh does much better. While the latter has 1,175 daily factory employees per 100,000, J&K has a pathetic 300. Incidentally, joblessness among the youth has been cited as a significant factor in driving them into militancy.
The one thing J&K has been pampered with are promises. Yet the fact that many of these pledges have failed to translate into reality has only fed popular disenchantment. The 290-km rail line from Udhampur to Baramulla, which a succession of prime ministers have promised the state, is barely chugging along. Large areas of the state are trapped in their own isolation, all the more so when the snows set in and render the few roads that exist un-motorable.
There are, too, other issues as well - as for instance ensuring the safe return and rehabilitation of the Kashmiri Pandits. The new government in J&K has its work cut out if it rises to the challenge of these poll results. It will have to ensure that even in autumn, there can be spring - and hope.

The Indian Express, Editorial, October 11, 2002,
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=11046

Curtains on Polls: Actors have Roles Cut Out

Now that J&K polls 2002 are over, sweeping aside entrenched National Conference and bringing to power Congress probably for the first time through a free and fair election, major challenges lie ahead for the Centre, the BJP, the Congress, the PDP, and the National Conference.
For the first time in decades, it may be an adversarial government in the saddle in Srinagar to the one in Delhi. The PDP has been more categorical about the need to talk to the militants than was the National Conference, and the Congress has time and again expressed the need to open dialogue with Pakistan, more than a BJP hemmed in by hardliners was prepared to do.
With a popular mandate, the new government will enjoy legitimacy and unlike other states, J&K will constantly be under international scrutiny. It won't be easy for the Centre to ignore or dismiss it, if there is a confrontation on any issue.
While the new situation may give greater elbowroom to the PM to further his initiatives with Pakistan, it would also call for greater statesmanship on his part. It will not be so easy to synthesise the various pulls and pressures that the PM would be subjected to in the coming months from Sangh offshoots on the one hand and the new government in Srinagar, which would naturally be a factor in any move the Centre makes.
That the Hindus of Jammu rejected the BJP and opted for the Congress at a time when the saffron forces were refocusing on Hindutva may lead to greater stridency on the part of the BJP, and this could be a dangerous trend. The BJP would have to do a hard think on some of the positions it has held.
It is significant that despite a sense of grievance and discrimination at the hands of the Valley, Jammu region rejected state's trifurcation as a possible solution, made a poll plank by the RSS, which had floated a separate Manch. Ironically, as things have turned out, Jammu will get a greater say in the governance of the state for the first time as the Congress has won essentially from the Jammu region.
This is the first time that there will be a coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir - another example of the mainstreaming of the state. It will pose a major challenge both for the Congress and for the PDP, which has emerged as the Kashmiri equivalent of the TDP, RJD, BSP,SP, NCP.
For Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, the wheel has come full circle. It was the kidnapping of his daughter Rubaiyya and the release of militants when he was Home Minister that sparked off militancy. Today, he and daughter Mehbooba, the real star of J&K election 2002, are called to put the state back on the rails.
The manner in which the new CM is selected, the cobbling of the coalition, and the common programme that the Congress and PDP evolve will be the real test for the Congress, and for Ghulam Nabi Azad, who luck has favoured. How the Congress handles the challenge could have ramifications for tie-ups it has in the future.
The NC will do all it can to drive a wedge between Congress and PDP, and one of the weapons it could use is the issue of autonomy. The PDP has favoured the grant of autonomy but the Congress may be a little more circumspect on the idea.
People will be watching to see if the political activity for government formation will be 'Indian style' at its mercenary worst or a break from the past.
The NC could come to occupy the Opposition space in the state and this may endanger the position of All Party Hurriyat Conference. Much will depend on the grit the Abdullah father and son display now.

Neerja Chowdhury, The Indian Express, October 11, 2002,
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=11077

BJP Turfed Out of its Backyard

The BJP failed in J-K because it failed its supporters in the state, a painful conclusion the party is willing to accept only behind closed doors. The rejection of the party by its traditional Hindu constituency is as complete.
In 1996, the party had won eight seats in the region with NC being the single-largest party with 14. This time BJP could get only a seat while RSS' Jammu State Morcha got another. The Congress took the biggest chunk of 15, followed by NC with nine. Panthers Party got four, Independents six and BSP one.
First, the BJP put its long-standing demand of abolishing Article 370 on the backburner to form a Central government. Then, it entered into an alliance with the Abdullahs who its cadre were taught to hate. The Atal-Advani duo failed on the most crucial front - making people feel secure. While killings continued, the Deputy PM's much-promised 'aar-paar ki ladayi' (decisive war) against terrorists never happened.
The RSS hurriedly cobbled together 18-odd organisations under the Jammu State Morcha banner to campaign for state's trifurcation. Both joined hands to fight polls but people's minds were made up.
They defeated them everywhere, even in Jammu city, where even its previous avatar, Jana Sangh, had always won. The BJP did not trace the debacle to its opportunism and inaction. Party chief M. Venkaiah Naidu attributed the 'setback' to the tie-up with Morcha and the NC alliance. He said Morcha violated the deal. The people voted for Congress and PDP because they were determined to oust the NC. The RSS chose to draw solace from NC rejection. "We welcome it," Sangh spokesman Ram Madhav said.

Pradeep Kaushal, The Indian Express, October 11, 2002,
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=11079

Shift of Puppet Regime of No Consequence: APHC

The Chairman of the All Parties Hurriyet Conference, Prof. Abdul Ghani Bhat has said that the new Indian drama of cosmetic changes in the puppet administration will not alter the ground situation in occupied Kashmir.
According to Kashmir Media Service, he was commenting on announcement of the pre-determined results of the latest sham polls.
Talking to media men in Srinagar Thursday, Prof. Abdul Ghani Bhat said that those who took part in the so-called elections were all Indian stooges. As such, the Kashmiris were least concerned about who among them would run the puppet administration.
He said, Kashmiris totally boycotted the polls drama and the entire process is bogus.
He stressed that the shift of puppet regime is of no consequence at all. Kashmiris, he emphasised, would continue their struggle till they achieve their right to self-determination.
Meanwhile, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference describing the recent formation of Jammu and Kashmir Democratic People's Forum by so-called15 independent candidates as a hypocritical step said, "it was not going to make any difference to the political situation.
The Forum is not going to make any difference. They are nothing but a bunch of people from different backgrounds who have come together to cook their own broth," APHC chairman Abdul Ghani Butt told media in Srinagar, they sought votes on the plank of freedom of occupied Kashmir but they had contested elections under the framework of the Indian Constitution.
"What else is hypocracy?" the Hurriyat chairman asked. "We don't support this kind of endeavor even if they were former members of our constituent Peoples Conference," he said.
"If they want to join mainstream politics under the Indian Constitution then they should say so and not cheat people of the occupied Kashmir by making false promises," Butt said.

Kashmir Liberation Cell, October 11, 2002,
http://www.klc.org.pk/klc/oct202/oct11-4.html

Kashmir Election: Drama is Over

The final phase of Kashmir's elections was conducted on 8th Oct. This time the main focus in the latest phase of the Kashmir elections was upon Doda and Lolab. Voting was supposed to take place in Lolab on September 16 but the death of state law minister Mushtaq Lone (who was contesting as a National Conference candidate) caused the postponement to Oct 8. According to the Indian assessment more than 40% voters have participated in this phase of elections despite the accompanying violence.
It was anticipated that the voting in Doda would be far lower but reports indicate that the voting turn out was reasonable. The opponents of the elections launched an attack killing two security personnel. It has also been reported that one attacker was killed and the other was injured. In anticipation of violence Doda attracted a very heavy presence of security forces. Many more soldiers were despatched to Doda for election, and according to some for electioneering purposes.
Now the drama is over, it is time that the parties involved to return to serious business. It has been vociferously stated over and over again by almost all concerned including the members of the international community, Indian, Pakistani and the Kashmir leaders that the elections in Kashmir can in no way resolve the dispute. The only way it can be resolved is via dialogue. Since the elections are over, it is time that good sense prevails and the parties initiate the much-desired dialogue.
It is an open secret that with the collusion of the Indian government almost all Kashmir elections were rigged to manufacture the desired results. The anger and frustrations accumulated over the years was the result of not just the continuous hijacking of the Kashmiris rights to decide the fate of their own state but the accompanying incompetent and corrupt state rulers also exacerbated it. The accumulated anger and bitterness erupted in the form non-peaceful approaches. Thus one witnesses an intensified freedom struggle, which gradually acquired more and more violent character.
Additional factors that have caused the transformation of peaceful approaches into relatively more violent included the emerging global environment with so many freedom movement surfacing along with pronounced disintegrative trends of the post cold war era. Possible encouragement could have also come from Soviets' defeat at the hand of the Mujahideen efforts in Afghanistan. But one should not overlook the fact that it was U.S. backing and its unceasing support that enabled the Mujahideen to force the Soviets to bow down in Afghanistan.
The last twelve years have witnessed a relatively more violent approach than what was the case in the past. However, there has been no change in India's policy towards Kashmir. Instead of taking cognisance of the emerging realities, it opted to blame Pakistan for all the ills in the IOK (Indian Occupied Kashmir). Disregarding the feelings of the people of Kashmir it ensured that the occupation of Kashmir remains under tight control of the India. For years it has maintained a very large presence of the Indian security forces validating the notion that it is an occupied area. Even the people are treated as the people of the colonised territories.
Ironically, the Kashmiris in the IOK remained chained while India vociferously drummed itself as the largest democracy. There is no doubt that India, in terms of population, is the largest democracy in the world though much can be highlighted about the undemocratic practices that take place somewhat regularly. Even the holding of regular elections is indeed a commendable feat. Talk of free and fair elections might carry the exact connotations if the reference is to the rest of the Indian territories and not to Kashmir. A comparative analysis of electoral practices in Kashmir and other parts of India clearly reveal a lopsided conclusion. Judged by any yardstick even by an Indian yardstick, the electoral processes in Kashmir are of different kind.
Four distinguishing characteristics of the elections in Kashmir are pre-poll rigging, the accompanying violence, continuous intimidation by the security forces and exaggerated projections. An additional feature in the recent Kashmir elections is the absence of foreign election observers. In almost all the Kashmir polls rigging has been regular feature. It would be extremely difficult to identify even one election in Kashmir that was free of riggings. Too much has already been written about the issuance of identity cards to followers of certain parties and the listing of voters on the electoral roles.
Secondly, violence has always accompanied elections in South Asia with varying degrees. Again it is difficult to identify any South Asian country that managed to hold elections free of violence. The degree, of course, varies from election to election but violence seems to have become part of the process however retrogressive it may be viewed. It is indeed unfortunate that instead of making polling day a festive occasion, it has become a day that may witness violence and mourning. Violence perpetrated during elections need to be outlawed. While it is not too difficult to answer the question that who caused the undesired violence and the case can be convincingly argued from both sides, it needs to be stressed that hundreds of people have died in the recent Kashmir elections.
Third aspect of the recently concluded Kashmir elections is regularly reported continuous process of intimidations. Again both sides need to share the blame with one distinguishing feature. The security forces are meant to protect people and facilitate the election processes. It is not their business to take side and force people to go to polling booths. There were innumerable media reports, which clearly revealed the involvement of the security forces to threaten the Kashmiris. Never in the history of civilised world such a blatant level of intimidations has been witnessed.
The fourth aspect of this election is that one has heard and read gross exaggerations of the actual results. How the figures are arrived at is indeed a puzzle. Even cases in which the regular reporters have repeatedly mentioned lower figures of voting percentage yet one finds the officially announced figures are far beyond anybody's expectations.
The fifth visible feature is the absence of international election observers. Many Indian writers have argued that the presence few embassy officials were just as good as those of the election observers. The two groups of people are trained for different jobs. A good cook may not turn out to be a good mechanic. Both are trained for different jobs. An embassy official is unlikely to be critical analyst of election processes even if he spots gross irregularities.
According to the APHC sources, the people of Kashmir have once again responded to their calls rather positively and ensured that the voting percentage remains low as far as possible whereas the Indian sources are stressing that the overall voting percentage has been reasonably good. The Indian sources are quoting figure around 44% whereas the APHC sources are listing it below 10%. Both would be projecting their figures in pursuit of their stated objectives.
The Indian would indeed be attempting to convince the international community that since the voting percentage was around 44% and this means that the Kashmiris are quite happy being an integral part of the Indian Union. They have no desire to leave India.
The APHC would convey to the international community that once again the actual voting percentage has been ridiculously low and as a consequence of this latest proof of Kashmiris apathy, it would be only appropriate for the international community to intensify its efforts to initiate a dialogue among the concerned parties with a view to find a lasting solution to this complex dispute.
The controversy over how many Kashmiris have voted would continue occupy space in the newspapers for sometimes with each party trying to establish credibility of it's stated voting percentages. This is where one could have had the benefit of observer's presence but India never wanted to land in such an eventuality and strictly disallowed the observer's presence.
Assuming that both sides are exaggerating, perhaps an average voting turn out may turn out to be in between 20%. This is indeed a low turn out particularly if one takes into consideration the role- played by the security forces in forcing people to go to polling booths.
Both the outsiders as well as the insiders, that the elections would constitute first step towards the resolution of the dispute have repeatedly asserted it. Since the elections are over, the efforts must now concentrate on the initiation of talks. To continue to hold the Kashmiris in chains and not to initiate negotiations are not wise pursuits.

Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema, The News, October 13, 2002,
http://www.jang-group.com/thenews/index.html

Eye on Chair, Cong, PDP Stand Ground

After the poll romance, neither the Congress nor the PDP is willing to admit in public that the chief minister-ship is at the root of their souring relationship.
Both parties have their political compulsions which force them against any compromise. The poll manifesto is the PDP's lifeline and key to its survival as a regional powerhouse. "We have not fought this election only over roads, water, and electricity. If we compromise on the very basics of our manifesto, how will we face our people?" a senior PDP leader said.
The party is not ready to accept that the core problem is the CM's chair. "We want power only because we want to implement our manifesto. That is why we want to head the government," the leader said.
The Congress' outlook, however, is not confined to J-K alone. With Gujarat polls on its mind, the party has to weigh its every step. It knows any move that is considered soft on separatists will backfire. And from Gujarat to the next Lok Sabha polls is but a small step of two years.
As the divide deepens, the Congress and the NC - being the two largest parties in the Assembly - are emerging as the key players in forming the next J-K government. Congress has already sent R. K. Dhawan and Ahmad Patel to help Legislature Party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad form the government.
The party has reportedly roped in most Independents from Jammu region. Eight members of the newly formed Democratic People's Forum (DPF), which includes two CPI(M) members, have agreed to support Congress. People's Conference 'proxy' Mohiuddin Sofi leads the forum.
Its Legislature Party leader, CPI(M)'s M.Y. Tarigami, said: "We had a meeting with Congress leaders today. They gave us a letter, inviting us to support them."
On a broad coalition, he said he has appealed to PDP leaders to reconsider their stand. "I had a meeting with some senior PDP leaders this evening. I appealed to them to let us throw our weight together."
With 20 members, Congress can manage a simple majority of 44 only through defections. The anti-defection law makes it tough to wean away NC men. So the only way out is to split PDP.
"PDP is yet to be recognised by the Election Commission as a party. So if some of their members join Congress, it will not invite suspension through anti-defection measures," a Congress leader said.
The PDP leadership may say their flock is untouchable. But chinks have already started showing in its armour. Senior PDP leader Muzzafar Hussain Beigh stayed back in Delhi and missed out on the Legislature Party meeting.
The Congress-PDP tug-of-war has encouraged a disheartened NC. It's now wooing Independents to muster the magic number.

Muzamil Jaleel & Nazir Masoodi, The Indian Express, October 14, 2002,
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=11333

Panthers Promise Cong Support if CM from Jammu

Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party on Monday decided to extend support to Congress if their chief ministerial candidate is from the Jammu region.
"If chief ministerial candidate of the Congress is proposed from Jammu division, we will extend support of our four legislators to the party," JKNPP President Bhim Singh said.
Singh said he would visit Delhi this evening to meet AICC chief Sonia Gandhi and CPM leaders to discuss government formation in the state.
He also demanded that his party, the fourth largest, be invited to form Government in case Congress and Peoples Democratic Party fails to muster the numbers.
Singh also appealed to the parties, who are staking claim to form Government to avoid any kind of confrontation as the mandate this time was for restoration of peace and ending terrorism.

The Indian Express, October 14, 2002,
http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=15812

A Defining Moment for Kashmir

If the credit for what has been widely acknowledged as a free and fair election in Jammu and Kashmir should go primarily to the dogged efforts of the Chief Election Commissioner, J.M. Lyngdoh, to ensure the transparency and the security of the electoral process, thus producing a result that is credible as it is promising, the real heart warmer was the fact that large numbers of Kashmiris voted, thereby signalling their willingness to renew their faith in the Indian democratic system. The defeat of the National Conference, a partner in the NDA coalition ruling at Delhi, the strong electoral showing of the Congress party and the emergence of the People's Democratic Party have yielded space for a fresh set of political interlocutors who can now commit themselves to work for a genuine resolution of Kashmir's identity crisis. With the international community, particularly the United States showing no hesitation in pronouncing the J&K elections as 'credible' and 'free and fair,' it is for the Indian Union to seize the moment and utilise the political space that is clearly opening up for fresh initiatives from New Delhi to reach out to the embittered and weary Kashmiris.
But it must be recognised that the holding of the elections to the State Assembly cannot be seen as an end in itself and the Vajpayee administration would do well to eschew the temptation of indulging in triumphalist rhetoric and using this as another opportunity to gloat over the contrast with a more beleaguered Pakistan. More than anything, the Kashmiri electorate appears to have not only sidelined the National Conference but also has pointedly snubbed the BJP which has won only one new seat, losing all the eight it had won earlier in the 1996 Assembly elections. It is clear that the Hindutva majoritarian project which is in essence the BJP's primary political platform, despite its protestations to the contrary, and which the NC had inexplicably allowed itself to be associated with when it joined the NDA coalition, has been resoundingly rejected in all the regions of J&K. The RSS's hard-sell of the trifurcation proposal has evidently not found favour even with the non-Muslim minorities in the State. The fact that the Kashmiris did determinedly vote in this election, braving a hail of jehadi bullets and bombs, also testifies to their eagerness for a political solution which can no longer be deferred.
The Congress party which appears most likely to lead the new Government in Srinagar will have to live up to the expectations implied in the votes that were cast in these elections. The onus is now on the new leaders in Srinagar to devise fresh political strategies to address the persisting sense of the alienation of the Kashmiri people. The Congress party has had a long if complex historical association with the Kashmir problem given the troubled dynamics of the relationship that existed between the Nehru family leaders and the Abdullahs, which often erupted into full-scale conflict and bitterness between the two, leading to the Congress party's own loss of credibility as an interlocutor. Therefore it has now to regain the political confidence that it has lost. Complicating its task is the political reality that these election results are more a reflection of the unpopularity of the NC rather than the appeal of any other party.
If the Congress is to make the most of this new and historic opportunity and is serious about leading the secular and pluralist forces in this country in a principled resistance to the Hindutva majoritarian project, Kashmir is a test-case of the sincerity of its intentions and of the maturity of its political approach. It is true that under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi, the Congress has been making a spirited attempt to regain its moral authority in terms of reclaiming the high ground of India's strong secular and pluralist traditions. Shedding much of its earlier ambivalence, the Congress party has recently shown itself willing to assertively stand up for the minorities, for the idea of a nation-state based on the equality of all communities, as in its political response in Gujarat where it has shown itself ready to do battle with the confrontationist and destructive policies of Narendra Modi.
But there is no evidence as yet that the Congress party and its leader are willing to go further and break fresh political ground in their attempt to offer a credible and appealing alternative to the BJP-led NDA. Merely swearing allegiance to secularism and piously repeating slogans of yesteryears would not really help in rebuilding the Congress party's image as a party that means business. There is still a strong impression that the party's political approach remains timorous and lacks creativity when it comes to figuring out new responses to old problems such as Kashmir or relations with Pakistan.
The Congress party has appeared to prefer to adhere to the time-worn and traditional formulations adopted on these issues. Even during the election campaign in Jammu and Kashmir, while Ms. Gandhi did promise an 'unconditional' dialogue with the Kashmir people, she seemed to carefully stop short of spelling out her party's stand on the issue of the historically-mandated right of the Kashmiris to more autonomy than in other Indian States.
The Congress party is in fact well placed to pick up the dialogue process on autonomy, given that it was a Congress Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, who more than three decades ago put her signature on an agreement with Sheikh Abdullah, reaffirming the State's right to autonomy and vesting in it, the residuary powers of legislation. The 1975 pact, an updated version of the original 1952 agreement between Jawaharlal Nehru and Sheikh Abdullah, contained the core of an approach that remains as valid today. If some of the features of these accords have become obsolete or rendered irrelevant by the passage of time, it remains that the Kashmiris feel betrayed that the historical commitment of the Indian nation to the Kashmiri people that their accession to the Union would always be contingent on the condition that the State would retain control of most of its own affairs, except for defence, foreign affairs and communications, has been repudiated.
Thus given that the Kashmiris, much like the Sri Lankan Tamils, have internalised in their imagination the idea that their aspirations have been cold-shouldered and that they have been repeatedly betrayed with un-kept promises and brute repression, it would be foolhardy and reckless to presume that if the situation is left alone to 'cool down,' their sense of alienation will disappear. By all accounts, the strong sense of anguish in the Kashmir Valley that thousands of young lives have been sacrificed for the cause of 'azadi' cannot be so easily diluted by suggestions that once the spectre of jehadi terrorism is banished, normalcy will return. There have been glib and misleading suggestions that the political aspirations of the Kashmiris can be managed without having "to give away too much." These assertions apparently bank upon winning the diplomatic support of the U.S. and the international community, and are premised on the calculation that a Valley flooded with a barrage of economic incentives from New Delhi would be more eager for integration with the Union. But it is unlikely that the Kashmiris whose historical imagination remains fixated on the dream of independence can be wooed back with anything less than a dramatic paradigm shift towards autonomy of a radical kind. Even if the new leadership in Srinagar is reluctant to pick up the old texts of 1952 or 1975, it will have to make the conceptual acknowledgment that there is a historical and Constitutionally-mandated commitment on the part of the Indian Union to the people of J&K to restore to them the autonomy that was promised to them when they acceded to India.
In a larger sense, the moment cannot be more in India's favour than it is now as it proceeds to address the one issue that has so severely tested India's political energies and diplomatic skills. All the indications are that the international community has welcomed these elections as the start of a political process that will help keep the Kashmiris within India's democratic framework. The Hurriyat has been told bluntly that the international community will not support the idea of an independent Kashmir and more importantly, Pakistan has been politely told by the U.S. that it is not a good idea to sound contentious on the election process in J&K. It is now for India to strengthen the moral authority of its rule in Kashmir by honouring its promises to its people. It would also have to embark on a creative engagement of Pakistan which will in the long run help to succeed in dissipating the challenge to India's sovereignty over Kashmir.

Malini Parthasarathy, The Hindu, October 14, 2002,
http://www.hinduonnet.com/stories/2002101400901000.htm

New J&K Assembly Constituted

The new Jammu and Kashmir Assembly has been constituted with the Election Commission on Sunday formally notifying the names of all the members elected to the 87-member Assembly.
According to the notification, a general election was held for the purpose of constituting a new legislative Assembly for the state of Jammu and Kashmir in pursuance of notifications issued by the Governor under the various sections of Representation of People Act, 1957.
Returning officers of all the 87 constituencies of the state Assembly have declared the results in their respective segments, an official spokesman said.
National Conference emerged as the single largest party bagging 28 seats followed by the Congress with 20, People's Democratic party - 16 and Independents - 13.

The Times of India, October 15, 2002
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/articleshow?art_id=25106323

Showdown: Cong Draws First

Hopes of early installation of a new coalition in Jammu and Kashmir dimmed today with the Congress and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) battling in the open for the Chief Minister's post.
By electing PCC chief Ghulam Nabi Azad as the CLP leader in the presence of a team deputed by the party high command, the Congress not only spoiled chances of PDP chief Mufti Mohammed Sayeed but sent out a clear message that it had reservations on the latter's post-poll agenda, especially on holding unconditional talks with militants.
In Srinagar, the buzz was that the Congress was trying to rope in independents and engineer defections from the PDP to somehow get close to the halfway mark of 44 in a House of 87 members and then stake claim to form the government.
The party was also promised support from the Panthers Party whose chief Bhim Singh met Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi this evening. To add to the mess, he said that he himself would be only too willing to lead the coalition.
At the Congress headquarters in New Delhi, there was growing suspicion that in case all attempts failed, the state Assembly could well be kept in suspended animation after October 17. Most Congress leaders admitted that the PDP would not settle for Azad, from Doda in Jammu, after making it public that Valley-man Sayeed was all set to lead the coalition.
In Srinagar, Congress leader Taj Mohiuddin claimed that Congress had the requisite numbers to form the government. "We are now in a position to form a new government. We will show our strength," he said. After being elected CLP leader, Azad met Governor G. C. Saxena. Sayeed and National Conference chief Omar Abdullah too met Saxena.
The PDP's insistence on inclusion of unconditional talks with Kashmiri militants in the charter for governance is said to have come in the way of the alliance.
For the record, Azad told The Indian Express that the Congress was in total agreement with the PDP over the Common Minimum Programme. The Congress, he said, wanted to head the government as it felt the people of the state had voted for perceptible change, which could be brought about only by the Congress. "We stand by our promise of unconditional dialogue with separatists," he said, adding that the party would be sending an envoy to the PDP to mediate.
However, PDP sources said Sonia Gandhi, when she met Sayeed in New Delhi, made it plain that her party could not support the PDP demand for unconditional talks. She was quoted as having said that "a party like the Congress had to have a national outlook and not different parametres for different situations." A dejected Sayeed returned to Srinagar and apparently explained the situation to Governor Saxena.
Sayeed's daughter Mehbooba Mufti, on her part, maintained that "Kashmiris who voted us to power expect us to change the ground situation and we cannot do that without holding talks with militants."
Speaking to The Indian Express, Mehbooba said, "We promised to stop bloodshed, provide a healing touch and put an end to the sufferings. But that is not possible if we do not agree to include these in the common governance plan."
Mehbooba said no talks were on with the Congress at the moment. "I only see Congress leaders on TV claiming that chances for an alliance were still open." Miffed PDP leaders say the National Conference may take advantage of the situation.
"The Congress handled the whole matter in the most irresponsible manner. If independents sense that the PDP-Congress alliance will not take off, they may head to the NC," a senior party leader said.

The Indian Express, October 15, 2002,
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=11339

Cong, PDP on with Talks, NC Ready Again

The impasse over government formation in Jammu and Kashmir continued on Sunday with the Congress and the People's Democratic Party (PDP) failing to say who would be the next chief minister.
Hectic confabulations were on in the Capital to work out a Congress-PDP alliance.
Jammu Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee president Ghulam Nabi Azad deferred his visit to Kashmir for the second day to be available for consultations with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. Azad also held discussions with veteran party leader Karan Singh.
The PDP made it clear that party president Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, presently camping in New Delhi to hold talks with the Congress, was its final arbiter.
Denying reports that party vice-president Mehbooba Mufti had opposed Azad becoming chief minister, a PDP spokesman said that the party did not meddle in the internal affairs of other parties.
He said that rumours about PDP's opposition to Azad were aimed at spoiling the prospects of a PDP-Congress alliance government.
However, in Srinagar, the Congress maintained that the chief minister-ship should go to its candidate by the virtue of the party winning four more seats than the PDP's 16.
Despite this impasse, the Congress and PDP on Sunday started working on a 'Common Minimum Programme' that will form the basis of the coalition government in the state.
Meanwhile, in a significant development, the National Conference (NC) said that it had not closed its options to stake claim to form the government, asserting that the Governor was constitutionally bound to invite the single largest party.
Earlier, Governor G C Saxena had invited the leaders of the NC, the Congress and the PDP to discuss the situation.
PDP vice-president Muzzafar Hussain Beig said that the Valley would "go up in flames" if the chief minister's post did not go to someone from Kashmir. He said that since the NC defeat was felicitated by the PDP in the Valley, only his party had the right to the chief minister's post.
Sources said that Beig's meeting with the outgoing Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah on Friday was meant to pressurise the Congress.

The Times of India, October 15, 2002
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/articleshow?art_id=25088188