NEW DELHI, 19 September — India’s Election Commission argued before the Supreme Court yesterday for the imposition of president’s rule over the riot-hit western state of Gujarat after Oct. 3, where the ruling Hindu extremists are pressing for early elections.
The appeal, made to the Supreme Court, came a day after one person was killed and 13 injured in the first major violence in more than a month in Gujarat. Over 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, died in the state earlier this year.
The Supreme Court is hearing a petition from Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s government in favor of early elections in Gujarat after its assembly was dissolved in July.
The commission had said the provincial vote could be held in November or December but not in October, as requested by the Gujarat and central governments, both headed by the Hindu extremist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Solicitor General Harish Salve on Tuesday had argued that if the Gujarat elections were delayed beyond October it would violate the constitution. The constitution states that elections need to take place within six months of the last sitting of a provincial legislature. The last session of the Gujarat Assembly was in March.
Responding yesterday, the Election Commission’s counsel K.K. Venugopal said that if the six-month period lapses then New Delhi should impose “president’s rule,” or direct federal rule, on the state, the Press Trust of India reported.
Venugopal told the court the vote could not be held before November because revision was needed of the electoral rolls.
Thousands of people are still living in relief camps after their homes or businesses were destroyed in the riots, meaning their names would not appear on voter lists.
India’s main opposition Congress party has called for federal rule in Gujarat, the largest state run by the BJP, charging that the provincial government has done little to prevent vigilante attacks on the Muslim minority.
Riots broke out in Gujarat after Feb. 27, when a Muslim mob torched a train carrying Hindu activists, killing 58 people. Over 1,000 people have since died, although human rights groups say the death toll could be twice as high.
Reports by human rights groups have charged that the state government turned a blind eye to attacks on Muslims and in some cases even abetted the riots, with some policemen sending Muslims who had sought help back to their hard-line Hindu assailants.
The riots subsided in April with the deployment of the army, but sporadic violence has continued.
On Tuesday, one person was killed and 13 others injured in clashes with police in a town east of Gujarat’s commercial capital Ahmedabad.
The mob violence had been triggered when a Muslim motorcyclist had an accident with a Hindu boy. Gujarat’s Chief Minister Narendra Modi in July dissolved the state assembly and asked the commission for permission to hold immediate elections.
Members of the commission visited the state in August and rejected an immediate vote, saying the situation was not adequately stable.
Vajpayee’s government then asked President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to intervene. The president in turn referred the issue to the Supreme Court.
The commission also urged the Supreme Court to return the presidential reference without giving any opinion as questions raised in it were “hypothetical” to facts of law. A five-judge bench is hearing the case on a daily basis and has fixed Sept. 26 as a deadline for arguments.
