Srinagar: Apni Party President Altaf Bukhari Tuesday expressed concern over how some political parties were trying to compromise the dignity of the people of J&K by conspiring against the basic right of the people to have their statehood returned to them.
A statement of the Apni Party issued here quoted Bukhari as saying that Apni Party would stay with its pledge and struggle till the statehood to J&K was restored.
He said that by their overtures and public posturing it seemed that National Conference (NC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were conspiring against the restoration of statehood because they know that Apni Party was the sole party that had taken a firm stand on the issue from day one since this arbitrary decision was taken.
Bukhari said that this demand was listed in the Apni Party memorandum submitted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah from time to time since the inception of the party.
He said that at that time parties like NC and PDP had started leveling baseless charges, and now they were conspiring to fulfill their petty political ambitions by agreeing to the union territory as the final status of J&K.
“Now these parties have started beseeching for elections in the current status by trying to undermine the idea of the restoration of statehood. Their high mark of getting Article 370 has been edged out of the discourse, and they are maintaining mysterious silence on the restoration of the statehood to J&K,” Bukhari said.
He said that this climb-down was a betrayal of the people, but it was not surprising as NC and PDP were habitual of letting people down by making false promises, hoodwinking the masses, and finally signing the surrender agreements.
