The Election Commission is expected to take a decision this week on holding elections in Jammu and Kashmir. Ordinarily, the six-year term of the state assembly would have run out on November 20. But once the PDP withdrew from the ruling Congress-led coalition this summer, governor’s rule was declared. It can be argued that, even then, governor’s rule could have been avoided. In any case, it is important that Central rule not be extended beyond January 10. There is reported to be division within the EC on the advisability of notifying elections in the state, one view being that the security conditions need careful scrutiny. However, with the Centre committing enough forces to allay such concerns, that argument stands nullified. Elections must be held on time, for the political consequences of postponement can be disastrous.

Of course, elections would come to the state in the aftermath of a season of restiveness in the Valley and in Jammu. But this point bears emphasis. Elections, in themselves, serve a useful purpose: they present, continually, a constructive alternative to agitation. They also present a lure for more popular, pragmatic members of disaffected coalitions, straining the cohesion that’s possible for those coalitions to maintain. Maintaining the electoral process as a sign of “normality” served to bring Jammu and Kashmir out of a long decade of militancy in the mid-1990s.

The prime minister, in his just-concluded visit to the state, stressed that economic development — as distinct from flooding the Valley with money from Delhi — is how the UPA expects to deal with the problem. That will always be, however, one part of how normality can be consolidated. Political engagement must go hand-in-hand, and that needs the mainstream political parties, and the politics-as-usual of an election campaign. The timing of the elections is, in the end, a question for the Election Commission. It must be understood through all this that the politics of the situation strongly militate against postponing the democratic process any further than early January.