Apni Party set benchmark of truth-telling in JK’s political landscape: Altaf Bukhari

Srinagar, Jul 12: Apni Party President Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari on Monday said that his party has the uniqueness of setting a benchmark of truth-telling among the political landscape in Jammu and Kashmir.
Addressing a public meeting at Nagri-Handwara in Kupwara district, Bukhari said that it was Apni Party that was accused of being the B-Team of BJP just for meeting the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the pressing issues that surfaced after abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.
“Now I ask those political parties who among you are the C, D or E teams of BJP because they met the same Prime Minister whom we had met, raising the same demands that we had already raised on March 8, 2020—the foundation day of Apni Party,” Bukhari asked.
He said the political parties who had correlated the recently held DDC elections in J&K with restoration of Article 370 & 35-A later on took a U-Turn on this critical issue. “I want to ask the then partners of that Alliance that if they won DDC seats on the plank of restoration of Article 370 & 35-A, why didn’t they vacate those seats now? This is because they had publicly acknowledged after election results that their previous stand on restoration of Article 370 & 35-A was technically and morally wrong,” Bukhari asked.
He observed that raking up restoration of Article 370 & 35-A by those political parties during DDC elections was just to cover up their failures of last over many decades of governance. “From autonomy to self rule to achievable nationhood–those political parties have been promising moon and stars. My humble request to the people would be to inculcate critical thinking and analyze the political parties and leaders on their performance and go for course corrections accordingly,” he opined.
Bukhari said that people should make the political leaders accountable for their performance and delivery on the ground. “Unfortunately, people have been following some political parties and leaders without any sense of accountability for the last many decades. I think that practice should end if you really want development in your areas,” he added.
Bukhari said that it was just because Apni Party’s truthful stand on the political issues that it is emerging as an enviable force across Jammu and Kashmir. “Other political parties were forced to acknowledge Apni Party’s truthful stand taken on restoration of Article 370 and 35-A. We have already said that it is the domain of the Parliament of the country or the Supreme Court that can restore the special status to J&K. We will always speak the truth. We don’t believe in hoodwinking the people for electoral gains,” he observed.
Party senior vice president Ghulam Hassan Mir, who addressed the meeting said: “It was Apni Party that for the first time got a written assurance from the government of India that there will be no demographic change in Jammu and Kashmir after abrogation of Articles 370 and 35-A. Rest of the political parties had kept mum and opted to behave like mute spectators to the sufferings of the people at that time.”
Mir said that Apni Party believes in clarity of thought and has never engaged in political doublespeak. “We always say in Srinagar what we say in Jammu or Delhi. You will never see any political double standards from our side. This is because we believe that people of J&K have been the worst victims of the hypocrisy of our political leaders who have ruled them for decades,” he added.
Besides Mir, the meeting was attended by provincial president Mohammad Ashraf Mir, district president Kupwara Raja Manzoor, district vice president Abdul Rahim Wani, district vice president Abdul Rashid Bhat, district secretary Bilal Arif, district coordinator Dr Tajamul and Mohammad Amin Bhat, Syed Ashraf, Irshad Malik, Ayooub Kataria, Hafizullah Bakshi, Manzor Ganaie, Aijaz Mir, Mohammad Amin Pir, Shabir Ahmad, Farooq Chechi, Gulam Qadir Wani, Habibulah, Qayoom Geelani, Mohammad Shafi and Ashiq Hussian.