Excelsior Correspondent
BANDIPORE (Kashmir), Sept 13: In his first political rally in militancy-hit Bandipore district, former MLA and founding member of the JK Apni Party Usman Majid urged all political parties in Jammu and Kashmir to woo voters only with the truth in the wake of the changed scenario after the abrogation of special status last year.
Addressing his party workers here in north Kashmir, Majid said the JK Apni Party is working for restoration of statehood of Jammu and Kashmir, and more developmental work in the Union Territory.
The Centre on August 5 last year had abrogated the special status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, and divided it into union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
“The need is for truth and I won’t promise you anything that is not deliverable,” he told his party’s workers.
Majid, a two-time MLA from Bandipore and vice president of the Apni Party, said that politics in the Kashmir Valley has been of lies and deceit, and this needs to be changed.
“I appeal to all political parties to speak the truth now and make promises only when you can deliver,” he said at the function here, around 66 km from Srinagar.
“Article 370 was used for political gains through emotional exploitation by different regional and national political parties who never bothered to make the provision a permanent chapter in the Constitution and allowed it to keep it temporary,” Majid, a militant-turned politician, said.
He said the leaders of the National Conference, the Congress and the PDP have done nothing except playing politics on the issue.
“The people of Jammu and Kashmir were never told that it was a temporary provision,” the former minister said.
Majid also asked the Lt Governor’s administration to speed up developmental work in the Union Territory as it seems that nothing has changed on the ground post the abrogation of Article 370.
“People are disillusioned as there is no development and tourism has also come to a halt. There was much talk of fighting against corruption but nothing happened on the ground. Vested interests have developed both in Delhi and J&K,” he said.
The time has come when “we need to come forward and address the problems of the people especially the youth”, Majid said.
People in the Valley have seen death and destruction over the past three decades and it is the responsibility of political leaders to come together, sit and work out a plan for a better future, he said.
He cautioned people about Pakistan, saying “we under-estimated Pakistan and its designs in Kashmir… I have seen Pakistan from close quarters as I have spent two to three years, and miraculously escaped death there. It is not sincere towards Kashmir and it only wants to bleed India through a ‘100 cuts’ policy”.
Follow our WhatsApp channel