By Sept-Oct 1990, Punjab was already under President's Rule for three-and-a-half years. The state then sadly had little to show for it but a debris of bodies and tainted administrations.
The President's Rule started in Punjab during the stint of Rajiv Gandhi government. V P Singh only inherited that as a legacy.
On an average about 250 persons were being killed by terrorists every month then.
V.P Singh
Moreover threats by militants coupled with the fear that they may come to power through elections had almost demoralised the administration.
One factor that possibly weighed heavily against elections was an intelligence report which said that the Panthic Committee (Sohan Singh) had finalised its strategy of preventing the elections.
It was apprehended that the elections would be disrupted through attacks on candidates and people would be kept from polling votes through the declaration of a seven-day bandh.
Intelligence agencies also fear an increase in violence in the coming days due to the change of guard in Pakistan.
One report claimed some Panthic Committee (Sohan Singh) leaders met the then chief minister of Pakistan's Punjab, Nawaz Sharif, and Gajinder Singh, chief of Dal Khalsa lodged near Lahore, on June 27 (1990) and decided to intensify terrorist activity.
Consequently, senior officers of the BSF and CRPF at Amritsar favoured a longer tenure of President's Rule.
Notably, the Left parties, the BJP and the Congress (then principal opposition against National Front government) were on one page that elections should not be held.
The reluctance of the Congress, BJP and the Left to go in for the elections in Punjab was understandable. Since 1980 their base has been shrinking steadily.
In the 1985 elections, of the 117 assembly seats, the three parties together captured a mere 39 seats against 78 in 1980.
The results of the 1989 Lok Sabha polls were a yet more grim reminder of changing equations in the state, proving an eye-opener even for the moderate Akalis:
for of 13 parliamentary seats, the militants and their allies bagged 10.
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The BJP in particular has been badly hit by the migration of Hindus - its primary vote bank.
A large number of them have left Punjab, and many more have moved from rural areas into the towns and cities of the state, and they are yet to be registered as voters.
Moreover, while in the 1981 census the population ratio between Sikhs and Hindus was 52:48, according to the census that was being undertaken in 1990, the migration has led to the Sikhs accounting for as much as 68 percent.
Hindus - came around 30 per cent only.
"A fact that must have weighed heavily on the minds of both the BJP and the Congress when they decided to oppose the elections," reported 'India Today'.
Of course in contrast, all the Akali parties have been agitating for the electoral process to be restored.
The would mince no words in describing the decision to extend President's Rule in the state as a foolhardy one.
Said Sukhjinder Singh of the Akali Dal (Badal):
"The Centre is closing the last hopes of a negotiated settlement. We'll have no option but to sit at home or join the militants."
Apart from him, Akali Dal (M) President Simranjit Singh Mann was also positively angry.
It was "political chicanery", he said, that the Government should have taken refuge behind its allies to scuttle the resumption of the democratic process.
The prime minister V P Singh was able to quell the murmurs of protest from within his own party - 11 of the 20 members, including Chandra Shekhar stayed away from the Political Affairs Committee meeting - but could not drown out the anti-poll tirade of his allies, the BJP and the Left.
In September 1990, the then BJP President L.K. Advani minced no words, and at a meeting at the prime minister's house on September 18 said the situation was not conducive for elections as the militants would resort to violence to prevent the people from voting freely.
Similarly, Dr Baldev Prakash, vice-president of the BJP, who was based at Amritsar, warned that elections would result in a spurt in terrorist activities and a large scale migration of the minorities.
West Bengal Chief Minister and CPI(M) stalwart Jyoti Basu was equally vehement in his criticism of the election move.
He asserted that elections should only be held after restoration of normalcy; else it would lead to the demoralisation of the security forces and the administration, and could also result in a situation where the militants seized control of the state Government.
Only Indrajit Gupta of the CPI was the lone voice demanding elections.
ends
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