THE ECONOMY-Not By Autonomy Alone

itself; on the other hand, it will almost certainly be an impediment to the emergence of a political arrangement in the state less unacceptable to the poeple of Kashmir. As they have amply demon- strated by their past conduct, the coalition government and Farooq Abdullah personally have every stake in portraying all elements posing any threat to their overlordship of the state as secessionists and Pakistani agents. In fact the number of hard-core militants in Kashmir even today is not very large, nor are they all politically united; and not all of them are Pakistani agents by any means. On the other hand, the National Conference under larooq Abdullah has, for the present at any rate, totally forfeited the confidence of the people. The prospect of a more acceptable political set-up in the state depends on the participation in electoral politics of sections of those whom Farooq Abdullah and the National Conference-Congress(l) alliance would want to be written off as terrorists and secessionists. This process will undoubtedly be facilitated if the central government lets it be known that it is its intention to undo as early as possible the outcome of the fraudulent elections of April 1987