raghu@ut-sally.UUCP (Raghu Ramakrishnan) (08/23/85)
Elections will be held in Punjab as scheduled on Sept. 25 despite the assasination of Sant Longowal. The Akali Dal will be led by one of Longowal's associates, Surjeet Singh Barnala, who was named the party 'Convener' on Thursday. Barnala is a former Minister of Agriculture at the Centre. Most opposition parties are strongly against holding the elections now. They said that elections now would precipitate more violence, and even accused Rajiv Gandhi of being indirectly responsible for the death of Longowal by scheduling the elections too soon. The source of the above information is an article in the New York Times, Aug 23. Incidentally, for those who are interested in pursuing current events in India, the NYT provides good coverage. (It definitely beats waiting a couple of weeks for the Hindu or Express!) Any comments on the controversy over election dates, especially from folks who are from Punjab? Here's a rather cynical assessment: Rajiv wants to have early elections so that he can make political hay in the wake of his successful negotiations. The Akalis are with him, especially now that Longowal's martyrdom has given them widespread sympathy (Some of them were initially opposed to early polls but they all agreed to unite and field a set of candidates just hours before Longowal was assasinated). The Opposition parties read the political picture in the same terms, and wish a postponement of polls in which they don't expect to do well.