By
IOL South Asia Correspondent
New
Delhi, October 14 (IslamOnline)- After the bloodiest polls in Jammu and
Kashmir state’s history, the process of government formation has
become an extremely contentious issue as no single party got a clear
mandate.
As
many as 284 incidents of violence occurred in the state after announcing
the assembly election in August. Since January this year, 1300 alleged
militants were killed, including 400 during the election period.
A
total of 730 persons were killed in Jammu & Kashmir after the
declaration of the date of the elections. 284 incidents of violence
occurred only in the Valley of Kashmir during this period.
The
intensity of violence this time was mind boggling compared to earlier
elections. Even in 1996, no candidate was killed, as opposed to the
latest episode in which two candidates were murdered. Attacks on
candidates and political workers added a new
Suicide
attacks too are new to the state. Coercion from the military to vote and
from militants not to vote created a situation of great uncertainty.
That made a 47-member independent study team of social scientists,
journalists and civil rights activists to declare that “the elections
were fair, but not necessarily free”.
The
study, said team leader George Mathew of the Delhi-based Institute of
Social Sciences, covered all 14 districts and 56 out of the 87
constituencies.
That
the election was relatively “fair” (keeping in mind the long history
of rigging in the state) because the ruling dynasty of Abdullahs was
voted out, but “not necessarily free” because reports of extensive
coercion from militants and the military were also available.
In
its interim report on the fourth round of polls covering the southern
hilly Doda district, another independent group, the Civil Society
Coalition, in its fourth interim report said there was extensive
coercion by both militants and government forces.
The
Civil Society Coalition, which promised to come up with a complete
report soon, did document extensive resort to coercion by both the
military and militants, the former doing it more often than the latter.
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Mourning
by relatives of a Kashmiri killed during the elections
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Despite
all the murder and mayhem (or because of it), the people gave a
fractured mandate. That makes different parties explain the results in
different ways. While the prime minister of India claimed that Jammu and
Kashmir elections were a vote for unity and integrity of India, the
23-party Hurriyat Conference said it was a “vote against” the
government of India.
“We
contest the prime minister’s claim that it was a vote for unity and
integrity of India. (In fact) the people voted against the government of
India,” Hurriyat chairman Abdul Gani Bhat said in Srinagar Saturday,
October 12.
Bhat
added, “It was an anti-incumbency vote to some extent, but people
largely voted against excesses of security forces.”
Without
refuting the prime minister of India, People’s Democratic Party (PDP)
chief Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and National Conference chief Omar Abdullah
said the polls would not solve the Kashmir problem.
The
same position was taken by the Bush administration, the European Union
and Japan. All of them have urged India and Pakistan to revive talks on
the final status of Jammu and Kashmir.
Meanwhile,
because of the fractured mandate, formation of a new government is
turning out to be quite difficult. The most likely to form government is
a coalition of Congress and PDP, with smaller parties joining them.
In
the 87-member assembly, Congress has 20 seats and PDP 16. That makes
them eight members short of the minimum strength of 44 required to form
government. Matters are not helped when the PDP chief, for reasons best
known to him, has been insisting on being chief minister despite having
one-fifth fewer of seats than Congress.
That
has encouraged far smaller players like Panthers Party (which has only
four seats) to stake claim to form government. Greedy, over-ambitious
politicians have been the bane of this state. Already they have begun to
spoil the show even before it begins.
