SPECIAL REPORT
JAMMU: Irked over the objective media reporting in exposing the state-of-affairs in the Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party, one of its senior leaders has touched the lowest depths of intolerance while asking the cadre to burn the copies of STATE TIMES after holding protests. The argument being advanced is that the newspapers have been writing against the ‘leadership’.
A career politician in his own right but a habitual turncoat, the leader is annoyed over the fearless and bold voice of Jammu in bringing out ‘the other side of the senior AP leaders’, which is quite embarrassing for the so-called high command as also the cadre. The politician doesn’t want truth to come to fore, fearing this may expose and damage the reputation of the leadership beyond any repair. That seems to be a logical reaction because AP has much to hide and very little to flaunt about its leaders, most of them belonging to the bunch of corrupt people. Some of them are parasites, who have been surviving on the blood of innocent people.
Will burning of the copies of STATE TIMES or holding protests against it change the truth? The answer will obviously be negative. Therefore, instead of burning midnight oil in scheming and conspiring against the ST, they must go for course correction. But they won’t. They can go to any extent. They can incite violence to muzzle the fourth estate. Mishandling of media by AP springs from its willful refusal to accept the reality on the ground, which is quite alarming for the leadership. Instead of carrying out a fact-check, the newly formed political party is employing dirty old tricks to provoke its lackeys against the media—the strong pillar of democracy in India.
AP leadership, especially its founding President Altaf Bukhari should take a hard look within to seek answers to apprehensions in the public mind about several leaders of the party. They cannot inflict scars on the people and get away with it too. In democracy, every public figure is accountable to the people. If he or she is corrupt, they have to clear the smoke by responding to queries. STATE TIMES is also doing the same—asking answers to various acts of omission and commission of the party leaders. There is nothing wrong in asking questions. There may be nothing wrong also in withholding the responses. We are living in a democracy. But there is certainly no room to harass the questioner. Nobody can shoot the messenger. Media gag can boomerang also. The AP has to be responsive and professional, particularly at a time when public-anger against some of its leaders is rising. Their anarchical behavior is doing much harm to the leadership than the exposure in the media.
The desperate and frustrated AP is losing its image rapidly due to misdeeds of some of its leaders. These leaders employ all tactics to silence the ST, which range from hurling threats to bribing out the targeted media persons. And, when both these tactics and attempts failed, the mischievous leader, whose political career, from a petty worker to a provincial level leader, has jumped the redline by asking his henchmen to burn the copies of the newspaper, which have been carrying objective reports for the past few days. This simply speaks of the hollowness and mental bankruptcy of the person concerned. He is not doing any service to the founding president but jeopardizing the prospect of the Apni Party.
The advice to AP cadre to arrange protests against the ST and to burn newspaper copies by petty workers is actually to hide the malpractices and ugly deeds of some of the unscrupulous leaders. This will cause a serious dent to ‘whatsoever image is left of the party’. Any attempt to gag the media can have far reaching consequences. Unruly protests are not new for upright STATE TIMES, which has faced such attempts by blackmailers in the past, who used to boast of the governments being in their pockets. Such attempts, in fact, raise the credibility of STATE TIMES. Therefore, the ST will not be deterred in bringing out the truth, no matter how much money and political power the adversaries may employ. Yes, if burning of the copies of the ST will have any impact, it may dismember the Apni Party itself because the people are the best and ultimate judges.