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India's
powerful Chief Election Commissioner MJ Lyngdoh: no to
government plans
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By
Md. Zeyaul Haque, Special to IslamOnline
NEW
DELHI, August 17 (IslamOnline) - The powerful Election Commission of
India has rejected the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) demand for
early elections in pogrom-hit Gujarat state. The commission announced
its decision late Friday, August 16.
The
Hindu nationalist BJP, which rules Gujarat and leads a ruling
coalition at Center, wanted early polls to cash in on the anti-Muslim
mood of the majority Hindus following the pogrom.
BJP
and its sister organizations Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and others
have been conducting a sustained hate campaign against Muslims over
the years, resulting in periodic eruptions of anti-Muslim riots all
over the country.
The
latest in the series was the Gujarat pogrom, which involved ethnic
cleansing of Muslims on an unprecedented scale from February to April.
Hundreds of Muslims were raped, hacked to death, burnt alive, and
their homes demolished by mobs led by BJP-VHP functionaries.
The
election commission, which visited Gujarat last week to ascertain
whether conditions were favorable there for elections, unanimously
declared that the conditions were “far from normal”. It also
observed that “wounds of communal divide following the riots have
not yet healed”.
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Gujarat
still simmers |
The
poll panel’s stance is just the opposite of the governments’ at
Center and in Gujarat, and constitutes a setback to the ruling BJP’s
grandiose plans to return to power in the only state it still retains.
The
poll panel released a 40-page press note on its findings supporting
its decision not to go for elections in Gujarat by October as demanded
by BJP.
BJP,
many of whose functionaries have been involved in the pogrom
(according to eyewitnesses, victims, and umpteen independent enquiry
commissions) is also not interested in bringing justice to the victims
as it would involve penalizing its own people.
The
commission said restoration of normalcy has been retarded by the slow
pace of rehabilitation. The fact that the guilty are not being
arrested and punished has also delayed normalcy, it said.
“Everywhere
there were complaints of culprits of violence still moving around
scot-free, including some prominent political persons and those on
bail. These persons threaten the displaced affected persons to
withdraw cases against them, failing which they would not be allowed
to return home,” the commission said.
In
present conditions an election campaign will only provoke more
violence. The commission found that out of 25 districts of the state,
20 were affected by the pogrom.
Citing
Additional Director General Police RB Sreekumar’s statement, the
commission said that 151 towns and 993 villages, covering 154 out of
182 assembly constituencies and 284 police stations out of 464 were
affected by the pogrom.
“This
evidently falsifies the claims of the other authorities that the riots
were localized only in certain pockets of the state,” the commission
said. The findings of the poll panel contradict the claims of top BJP
leaders in and outside government at Center and in Gujarat.
The
panel would consider framing a poll schedule in November-December when
law and order is restored and electoral rolls are updated. The
electoral rolls are not in order as thousands of Muslims who fled
rioters have yet to return to their homes, a process deliberately
delayed by the state government.
