Created with much fanfare on March 8, 2020, the ‘jumbo ship’ of the Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party has begun to sink under its own weight. The cracks became visible with the ‘State’ Coordinators of Displaced Kashmiri Pandits of the Jammu Division and the Kashmir Valley resigning from their posts. The noise of cracks is being heard across the Union Territory. AP’s Kulgam Block President Sameer Ahmad Khan also resigned from the party, saying that now he has nothing to do with it.
While quitting their top slots, the two KP Coordinators, inter-allia, stated that they were being harassed on one pretext or the other, obviously for raising the issues of their hounded out community. They also took moral grandstanding of preserving their self-respect as their voiced were being choked.
What does the harassment and self-respect indicate in a political party that came of the scene in Jammu and Kashmir with the plank of forming the next government? This means that the cadre within the party is feeling suffocated and bullied. This ‘anarchical state of affairs’ owes its genesis to the past of the senior leaders, most of them essentially turn-coats. Those at the helm have damaged the Apni Party to the hilt, putting the onus of saving it on the Chairperson Altaf Bukhari. He has made a real effort to create an alternative in the Union Territory to replace the feudal political system, which remains confined in the precincts of the families. An upright man himself, Bukhari has not been able to tame his herd, which is trespassing towards different directions, not for strengthening the party but exploiting its banner to serve their personal ends.
Vested interest has gripped the Apni Party rank and file to such an extent that they have started working for cross purposes. One hand doesn’t know what the other is doing. They have created their own empires within the empire. Most of the leaders are shielding mischievous elements at ground-zero for ‘pecuniary purposes’. The modus operandi is simple-to harass, blackmail and to browbeat.
The developing ‘unethical culture’ has lately become source of frustration and dejection for public spirited cadre that had joined the new outfit with the hope of doing something good for the Union Territory. On seeing ‘self-centric’ attitude in the leadership down below the President Bukhari, they prefer parting ways rather than becoming abettors to deceit, blackmail and browbeating.
If reports are to be believed, some senior leaders too are finding themselves helpless. They too are planning to part ways before it is too late when the people will know the real faces of leaders, who have ditched their parent organizations to get rehabilitated in the Apni Party. Departure of three middle rung leaders has set the trend for the exit.
Altaf Bukhari might have demonstrated his managerial skills and leadership qualities by making Apni Party a force to reckon with but can he manage to keep the flock together anymore? The available indicators speak otherwise. This has left no other recourse for the AP President to carry out performance audit of his colleagues by taking into account the feedback, which he must surely be getting being a pro-active strategist. To save the party, he will have to plunge into action and prune the leadership by bringing right person at the right place. Otherwise, public perception about the AP is negative. With this baggage, Bukhari may not be in a position to take on the traditional political parties, especially as the elections are nearing. The hard toil of over one and a half year is going down to drain unless course correction takes place-sooner the better. Any further delay will witness leaders at all the levels deserting Apni Party, which must be a disgusting situation for its founder.