Srinagar, May 17: Apni Party Senior Vice President Ghulam Hassan Mir on Friday said J&K’s traditional parties have always kept people busy with “deceptive” slogans for their own political gains.
The traditional parties deceived people through “deceptive” slogans like ‘Raishumar’, ‘Autonomy’, ‘Self-rule’, and so on, Mir said, adding, “Their deceptive political narratives and emotional sloganeering led people, especially the youth on the path of destruction. Eventually, thousands of our youth either landed in jails or in graveyards.”
He was addressing a public rally at the Buran area of Pattan in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district. The prominent party leaders who were present on the occasion included the party’s senior leader and former legislator Yawar Dilawar Mir, Provincial Vice President Muzaffar Rizvi, and Senior Leader Hamid Rather.
Speaking on the occasion, Mir urged people to support the Apni Party to enable it to implement its agenda for peace, prosperity and development.
He said, “Apni Party is committed to ensuring prosperity and well-being of the people. We have a vision for a dignified life for your youth. Unlike the traditional parties, especially the family parties, the Apni Party will not lead youth on the path of destruction; instead, we will ensure a dignified life for our young generation.”
Taking a dig at the traditional parties, the Apni Party leader said that these parties have always kept people occupied with emotional sloganeering, fake promises, and unattainable goals for their own political dividends.
He said, “They had promised to get ‘Autonomy’ and ‘Self-rule’ in Jammu and Kashmir. Did they get these things? The National Conference sought your votes in 1996, promising that it would ensure J&K gets autonomy. They got a two-thirds majority in the assembly. Yet, they passed just a resolution demanding autonomy. This resolution was thrown into the dustbin by the BJP government in New Delhi. Omar Abdullah was a minister in the Union Government at that time. At the very least, he should have resigned in protest of the insult to the autonomy resolution by the central government. But he continued to enjoy power with the BJP government.”
Mir said the infamous rigging in the 1987 elections paved the way for violence in Jammu and Kashmir. After the Rajiv-Farooq accord, NC and Congress rigged the elections, and eventually, this incident became the reason for violence here, he said
