Will your party take part in the assembly elections?
I have already made it clear that assembly elections and greater autonomy are two different issues. For restoration of autonomy, we have to fight a long battle. What we want at present is some clarifications, some undertakings from the Centre so that we can move forward.
The Prime Minister says the autonomy issue can only be discussed with an elected state government.
I have no objection to this. This is a correct approach. But I repeat, we want the Centre to spell out what is in its mind about the issue. Let it make a statement before Parliament that these are the parameters in which the assembly will have to function.
Union Minister of State for Home Maqbool Dar recently said that the NC has no representative status and only elections will decide which party has that status.
Dar said many things and I do not want to comment on those. But let me ask him how he got elected to the Lok Sabha? Did people vote for him or was it courtesy the security forces that he became an MP?
But according to Deve Gowda, the parliamentary elections were free and fair.
Which Prime Minister will dare to admit that rigging took place in the elections? But the fact remains that the Lok Sabha elections was a big fraud. And I am not saying this. Ask Janata Dal candidates who lost. They told me that the actual ballot boxes were never opened and instead new boxes were counted. Some election officials from Jammu told me that they were told to ensure that polling figures are shown between 40 and 45 per cent.
How will you ensure that no rigging takes place in the assembly elections?
I have no guarantee. I have only requested the Prime Minister to follow what Morarji Desai did in 1977. But I have my doubts. The way Gowda is praising the Lok Sabha polls as free and fair, I am afraid the assembly elections may not go off well.
