Islamabad
India is dissolving the old so-called mainstream camp in occupied Kashmir while giving shape to a new formation in the name of Jammu Kashmir Apni Party with its blessings. This has been stated in an opinion piece published by India’s English language news website, Scroll.in.
It stated that as politician when the Apni Party top leader, Altaf Bukhari, a former member of the Mehbooba Mufti led People’s Democratic Party, announced the launch of the party in Srinagar, he said he had drawn inspiration from Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, the prime minister of Jammu and Kashmir from 1953 to 1964. However, the article added, for generations of Kashmiris, Bakshi was the first of the collaborators, politicians who made accommodations with New Delhi to stay in power in the territory.
The article further said that the year 1953 also marked the beginning of Delhi’s creeping control over Srinagar. As it hacked away at the powers and autonomies granted to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370, it undermined parties and politicians who did not toe New Delhi’s line, ushering in those who did. The politics of the Kashmiri mainstream, as parties that took part in electoral processes were called, had to be politics permitted by Delhi, it added.—KMS
