The government will take a decision on holding elections in the trouble torn northern Indian state of Punjab next month, deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal said Thursday.
“The situation will be reviewed in March and a decision will be taken on the basis of the assessment,” Devi Lal told reporters in an informal chat. The deputy prime minister was on his way to Vishakhapatnam to inaugurate a dry dock.
Lal said the situation in Punjab had improved after the national front government came to power.
Asked if Farooq Abdulla would be reinstalled as the chief minister in the volatile northern Indian border state of Jammu and Kashmir, Lal said the first priority was to restore normalcy there. Replying to a question on the attitude of the opposition Congress (I) party with respect to Kashmir, Lal said the party had adopted a negative attitude towards the issue.
He pointed out that the Congress (I) had flown Abdullah in a special plane to Delhi to persuade him to resign when Jagmohan had not even taken over as the governor of the state.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 9, 1990
