Separatists in Valley Down but Not Out

STATE elections in Jammu and Kashmir may not have provided many answers but it has made one thing clear that the Hurriyat Conference has been exaggerating its strength and lessening the exasperation of people over the kind of politics it has been pursuing. It was wrong in assessing the mood of the Valley because the voters rejected roundly the Hurriyat’s call to boycott polls. Nearly 61 per cent of the voters queued up in severe winter to elect their representatives.

IT would be too unrealistic to believe that Pakistan will act in the right earnest once India has given them the evidence on the perpetrators of the Mumbai attack. Ever since the attack happened, Pakistan has been speaking as though it were the purest and most pacific country where such perpetrators as those of the Mumbai attack could not find any breeding grounds.

WE do not yet know whether the inconclusive talks on the names of candidates for forthcoming elections to the Lok Sabha from Goa held in the presence of the Nationalist Congress Party chief, Mr Sharad Pawar imply major or minor differences among the various political partners and stakeholders in the ruling coalition. Going by the probable names discussed.