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Onkar Singh in New Delhi
Reacting sharply to the six-member Election Commission announced by the All Party Hurriyat Conference, senior Bhartiya Janata Party leader J P Mathur described it as 'totally uncalled for'.
"We do not recognise any formation or body for conducting election in Jammu and Kashmir or proving the representative character of the Hurriyat, other than the Election Commission of India. The names included in the list sound an alarming bell in our ears. The majority of those who have been included are Muslims and anti-India. We totally reject the proposal," Mathur told rediff.com.
Talking from his residence in Jammu, former editor of Kashmir Times Ved Bhasin, who has been named as one of the members, said that he had so far not received any communication from the APHC.
"I have come to know about the names from the news reports only. Nobody has officially communicated it to me," he said.
When asked if he had been consulted before announcing the names, Bhasin said that nobody had approached him.
"Nobody consulted me on this matter before announcing my name," he said.
He, however, welcomed the Hurriyat move.
"Since the Hurriyat conference has no faith in the Election Commission of India, therefore, they had no other option but to announce their own commission as the government of India had rejected their proposal to hold elections in the state under an independent body," Bhasin told rediff.com.
Tapan Bose, who has been named as a member by the APHC, also could not be contacted as he was reportedly in Kathmandu to attend a human rights conference.
The general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Harkishen Singh Surjeet said that the timing of the announcement, coinciding with Pervez Musharraf's visit to the United States, is suspect.
"We, in the Communist Party, have always maintained that the Americans are playing a vicious game in the Indian subcontinent with a view to grab Jammu and Kashmir. The announcement of the Election Commission by the Hurriyat Conference on the eve of President Pervez Musharraf's meeting with George Bush should open the eyes of the Indian government. This has been done with a view to strengthen the hands of the Pakistan President Musharraf, who has been all along saying that the Kashmir problem should be solved in accordance with the wishes of the people of Jammu and Kashmir," Surjeet told rediff.com.
He alleged that the whole thing is a part of the American conspiracy to grab Kashmir.
"We naturally reject the proposal of formation of the six-member commission by the All Party Hurriyat Conference. This is one way of taking Kashmir from India. Hence not only us, the Indian government should also reject this proposal with the contempt that it deserves," he said.
Congress party spokesman Jaipal Reddy wondered how anyone can announce his or her own election commission.
"We reject the move because it has no constitutional validity. How can any one get up and announce his or her own election commission. The Hurriyat conference is trying to divert the attention of the people of Jammu and Kashmir from its failure to hold talks with the government interlocutor K C Pant. They want to hold their own election, where besides them nobody else would participate. It is trying to win an election without a contest," Reddy said.
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