RIYAZ UL KHALIQ
SRINAGAR
“We are the dignified citizens of miserable Kashmir and we have been working for last two years on civil society front,” a member, who did not identify himself, said at the launch ceremony of ‘Jammu and Kashmir Peoples’ Republic Front’. JKPRF is a new political party which was formally launched by its members Saturday here.
Without identifying themselves, the members, one by one addressed media pronouncing agenda of their party. The party members claimed that they were working on social issues before deciding to venture in to politics of J&K. “We have worked a lot on ground and we have got huge assessment from meeting people,” spokesperson of the front said. “We documented the views of people and decided to launch a political party,” he said.
When they were asked about their identities they sad, “We are dignified Kashmiris.”
He said that his party would ‘vigorously’ work on the agenda set by the executive council of JKPRF. The party is yet to decide their chief and secretary general. “On election time, people take parties seriously, so we decided to launch it now,” he replied to a question.
Interestingly, the ‘executive members’ did not speak a bit about their own profiles. The party also claimed that their group includes journalists, businessmen, lawyers, farmers and downtrodden. But they failed to name any person from the above mentioned profiles.
“We are social reformers and now will try to reform dirty politics in J&K,” they said.
The party alleged that, so far, the unionist parties in the valley nurtured only corruption and they shall work to ‘eradicate it from roots’. “NC and PDP are two sides of a same coin,” the spokesperson said adding, “they have been the most corrupt parties rather they gave boost to it but we shall not let it happen again.”
“There is a huge trust deficit between state of J&K and Union of India and our party shall bridge it,” one of the members with Andrabi surname said.
Andrabi blamed the regional pro-India parties for the mistrust. “NC and PDP have been giving bad perception to New Delhi that Kashmiris don’t like them but we don’t think so,” he claimed. “Kashmiris don’t like the policies of India,” he added. Further, he said, “Kashmir issue has been there for 65 years but we shall work on internal governance with focus on corruption.”
He also said that JKPRF would also vouch for the freedom of people who are languishing in jails.
