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Ghulam Nabi Azad, president of the Congress in Jammu & Kashmir, said on Monday that the central government was opposed to governor's rule in the state because its own devious game plan of rigging the assembly election would come unstuck.
Azad, who was a member of the Congress delegation that called on Chief Election Commissioner J M Lyngdoh, told reporters that he apprised the latter about the state of affairs in Jammu & Kashmir.
Referring to the National Democratic Alliance government's alleged opposition to governor's rule in the state, he warned that militancy in the Kashmir valley would grow if the election was not free and fair.
"They [the NDA and its constituents like the Bharatiya Janata Party and the National Conference] know that if they contest a free and fair poll, they will lose their deposits. That is why they are opposing governor's rule," he said.
Contending that the Centre and the Election Commission were duty-bound to conduct the polls fairly, he pointed out that the current militancy in the state was a direct result of unfair elections in the past.
He alleged that the voter list during the parliamentary by-election in Jammu could not even be read, allowing the state government to resort to "90 per cent rigging". Besides, 10 to 15 per cent of the names in the list were of dead people.
"But the commission has assured us that this time the voters' list will be computerised," Azad said.
He accused the local administration of having stopped the enrolment of voters for the last six weeks, saying the Election Commission had decreed it, but said the latter had denied any such order.
He said the commission had clarified that fresh enrolment should continue till the election was notified. "We have urged them [the EC] that proper steps should be taken to ensure that electoral malpractices are removed," he said.
Referring to the security aspect, he said that almost 4,000 leaders of the ruling National Conference had been provided security while only 10 or 15 leaders of the opposition were given bodyguards.
"It is an unequal fight," he said. "They [the central and state governments] want that in the absence of security we should stay at home," he alleged.
He praised CEC J M Lyngdoh and his colleagues for their efforts to fine-tune the electoral process and also visiting the Northeast and Jammu & Kashmir. "He [Lyngdoh] has the political will, but until and unless the man on the spot has it, I am afraid nothing much will be achieved," Azad said.
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