Elections to the Jammu and Kashmir assembly, the first after the outbreak of insurgency in the late 1980s, had been called. He had called some of us on the defence beat to his Lodhi Estate home for a farewell drink, before leaving for Udhampur to take charge as the northern army commander.
We took it with large gulps and a pinch of salt. Elections to the J&K assembly had been called and called off several times, once from Ouagadougou. No joke! Narasimha Rao had announced J&K polls on a 1995 midnight from Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. Now, in 1996, prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda had called for polls again, and was sending Lt.-Gen. S. Padmanabhan to sanitise the valley. Sceptical scribes, we thought either the polls would soon be called off citing rising violence, or that Paddy, then the army’s spymaster (journalese for director-general, military intelligence) would do a 1987.
Bu hikaye THE WEEK India dergisinin September 01, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye THE WEEK India dergisinin September 01, 2024 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
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