Srinagar: While accepting the verdict of the SMC with all and stressing that party’s councilors along with the ex-mayor will continue to work for Srinagar, Peoples Conference today said that the people of Kashmir have a right to know ‘who aligned with whom.’
In a statement issued here, party’s spokesperson, Adnan Ashraf Mir, said: “Some politically disturbing facts have come to the fore during the election of the mayor. The arithmetic of numbers of the winning combination is simply not possible without the joint participation of certain groups. And we certainly do not hold it against any group for aligning with any other group.
“No group is evil and no combination of groups is evil. But if a certain Kashmiri party is not willing to own up its alliance with a national party and is trying to hide it from the people of Kashmir, then we have a right to ask questions. It is no longer about the mayoral elections. The onus of proving that a certain regional party did not align with a national party lies on the regional party. They have every right to align with them but have no right to hide it in plain sight”.
He said that the last one year has been tumultuous and painful and most of the political leaders were jailed, adding, “And we have spent time together in different jails. Some of our workers were lodged outside J&K. We were “maybe” deluded to believe that it will mark a new era amongst the regional parties. And this new era would be defined by more transparency, less slanging matches and more respect for each other”.
He further said that the mayoral election mismatch between arithmetic and politics is not an isolated case.
In the recent past the spokespersons of this particular regional party have been at their scathing best and at the peak of their arrogance in attacking the leaders of another regional party when they dared to raise some questions, he said.
“The spokesperson of the said regional political party also issued statements against the outgoing mayor Junaid Mattu. Ironically this spokesperson was ideologically questioning his own party a week earlier. But he lost no time in making a scathing attack against Mattu. We are not even mentioning any party by name and sincerely hope our apprehensions are allayed satisfactorily. We believe there are much more sacred objectives which we all may have to collectively achieve. And that berating each other will only help those who have tormented the Kashmiris especially in the last one year,” said Mir.
