NEWDELHI: The Jammu and Kashmir Congress unit has come up with an level idea for the Assembly elections to field militants who had surrendered as its official candidates in various constituencies in the strife torn State.
The idea comes at a time when the Central Government has limped back “to the “election mode” on J&K, and has set a new target for polls sometime between late August and early October this year.
The Center was fiercely determined to hold polls before July 18, when the previous spell of President’s Rule in the State is out. The blunder at ChareSharief on May 11, however, anguished the people so deeply that the Government was forced to postpone the polls and secure an extension of Central rule or six months beyond July.
The postponement of polls seems to have defused some of the tension that was building, It is also a fact that the people in Kashmir are exhausted with violence and want a way out of the stalemate that has characterized the situation since 1992.
These factors have led the Government to resume its plans to hold polls so that a civilian government can run the State and help in the overall restoration of normalcy in the Valley. Pro-India political parties who had been enthusiastic about the polls prior to the ChrareSharief disaster, however gauged people’s unhappiness and re~ fused to take part, are now reportedly of the view that the Government resume some political activity.
One such pro-India party is the Indian National Congress, led by ghulam Rasool Kar, Although it has never had a mass base in Kashmir, it has had a following in the Jammu region, and has high hopes of reenacting the feat of Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh (who restored the State to normalcy after contesting polls virtually unopposed in 1992).
Mr, Kar, according to senior National Conference politician, plans to bolster not only his party’s fortunes in the State out also the legitimacy of the polls that are proposed to be held, by putting up surrendered militants in the 20odd “dangerous” constituencies (out of a total of 46) in the Valley (the number of constituencies in the State was recently raised in 76 to 87 by a delimitation commission).
Official sources say that there are around 1,500 militants who have surrendered to the authorities. They belong to various groups ranging from well-known ones such as pro-independence J&K Liberation Front (IKLF) and pro-Pakistan Hizbul Mujahideen, to obscure ones operating in Kupwara.
The only time surrender has been highly publicized was mid1994, when seven militants belonging to a defunct group surrendered to Minister of State for Internal Security Rajesh Pilot, who, incidentally, is close to Kar.
There are pros and cons to the move: the advantage is that it brings candidate into the electoral battlefield in a situation where most people do not expect much of either combatants or voters.
Furthermore (on the slightly more ruthless note), the surrendered militants are on the hit list of militants anyway, by contesting elections, the personal risk docs not significantly. Up, as it is extremely high case.
The disadvantage is that the candidates will probably get no votes. They are neither additional politicians, nor are they militants any longer, so they have no followers at all.
The biggest advantage, however, is that in an election which is sure to glean the interest of the international community, the move may be a winner in a purely tactical sense.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 23, 1995
