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Home ministry in favour of rescheduling poll

George Iype in New Delhi

The Kargil crisis has put a question mark on the forthcoming general election. The Union home ministry fears a protracted conflict on the border will force the government to postpone or reschedule the election.

As per the Election Commission's schedule, the election to the thirteenth Lok Sabha is to be held in the last week of September and a new government has to be sworn in by October 21.

But the home ministry is keeping its fingers crossed. Conducting the poll requires the complete services of the paramilitary forces, but most of them have been rushed to Jammu and Kashmir in the past three weeks.

According to ministry officials, more than half the Central Reserve Police Force is currently engaged in security operations across the state in place of the army and the Border Security Force, which have been moved all along the India-Pakistan border.

"The CRPF is the main force in charge of election duties. But it will be impossible to pull out the CRPF from Kashmir this year if the Kargil operations continue for the next three months," a senior official told rediff.com

He said though no decision had been taken about withdrawing the CRPF from Kashmir, in case of an escalation of the conflict in Kargil, it would be unwise to pull them out for election duty.

The official disclosed that recent intelligence reports have pointed out that conducting polls if the conflict in Kargil is at its peak will only compound the problems on the Line of Control.

The government anticipates that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence will launch subversive activities on a large scale across the country during the weeks leading up to the election.

Though Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has promised that the election will be held on time even if the Kargil crisis is not resolved by September, the home ministry feels that in such an eventuality the poll will have to be held under heavy constraints.

The ministry is chalking out a number of plans to cope with the Kargil flare-up. First, it plans to reduce the total number of paramilitary companies to be made available to various states for the election. Instead, there is a proposal that the Centre should ask the state governments to deploy their own police forces for poll duties.

Second, depending on the Kargil situation it is likely that the government will ask the Election Commission to stagger the poll into a number of phases to ensure that security personnel can be effectively deployed across the country.

The Bharatiya Janata Party leadership is said to be seriously examining the possibility of holding an election only after the government wins the Kargil battle.

But the Opposition parties are in no mood to accept the idea, especially because it is certain that Kargil will be the main poll issue.

Officials said the government has just one option if it desires to defer the poll -- invoke Article 352 of the Constitution and impose an emergency stating external aggression as the reason.

Though the Kargil conflict provides sufficient reasons to declare an emergency, many believe it will be tough for Prime Minister Vajpayee to resort to such a decision.

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