‘From Pak agents to Indian agents’, says Apni Party leader on NC-Cong naming opponents

Srinagar, Sep 15 (IANS) J&K Apni Party vice president and former Minister Ghulam Hassan Mir, on Sunday, said that the ‘autocratic, dynastic character of NC-Congress alliance in the UT’ does not want a large people participative poll process and the emergence of a new leadership.

In an exclusive interview with IANS, the senior politician spoke of many basic political issues that resulted in the alienation of the common Kashmiri from the country’s democratic, mainstream politics.

“The watershed rigging of elections by NC-Congress in 1987 convinced Kashmiris that they don’t have a space in the ‘democratic set up of India’ since the rigging and its approval by those in power at the Centre conveyed an impression that any emergence of an alternative to the NC-Congress leadership in J&K was not nationally acceptable. The natural outcome of this was what we have been going through during the last over three decades. The youth took to violence, brought in guns from across the border while the common man started supporting separatism as his/her entry into the country’s democratic space had been stamped out in 1987 rigging,” Mir said.

He said that after witnessing the fairness and the level of playground afforded to voters and contestants in the recent Lok Sabha elections, an impression went across that the government in power at the Centre does not favour any party by resorting to undemocratic tactics.

“The large participation by the people actually unnerved the two parties that always thrived by the people staying away from the democratic process in Kashmir. It is a great victory of democracy that those rejecting the democratic process in Kashmir in the past have finally realised that they have a space for their aspirations and issues within the democratic framework of the country. They genuinely believe that rigging, threatening and intimidation to keep them away from elections is a thing of the past.,” said Mir.

“This faith and trust in the country’s democracy by Kashmiris has created frustration among the two parties that always benefitted from the non-participation of people in the electoral process. When new faces and new challenges have emerged to challenge the dynastic might of the NC-Congress leadership, they have chosen the expected way out. They now label these new faces challenging them democratically as ‘Radicalised Islamists’, ‘Agents of Indian intelligence agencies’, ‘Proxies of the ruling party’ and ‘People pushed into elections to keep NC-Congress away from power in J&K,” Mir added.

“People of Kashmir have witnessed the working, political and changing colours of these leaders in the past. It is now a proverbial situation of these two parties calling the grapes sour,” he said.

Mir also said that trying to discredit political opponents by calling them ‘Pakistani agents’ in the past and calling them ‘Indian agents’ now defies the basic logic behind such unfounded propaganda.

“If somebody is an agent or proxy, that has to be left to the wisdom of the voter to decide and these two parties are trying to win an election even before the voting process gets underway. This is the democratic face of the dynastic rulers that intends to reinforce their inalienable right to remain in power by hook or by crook,” Mir wondered.

He is fighting the Assembly elections from the Gulmarg Assembly constituency. He represented this constituency thrice in the past but lost to a PDP candidate in the 2014 elections.

The NC-Congress alliance has fielded Farooq Ahmad Shah (of NC), a former bureaucrat, against Mir this time.

Gulmarg Assembly constituency goes to vote on October 1 in the third and final phase of the 3-phased assembly polls in J&K.

–IANS

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