Former Jammu and Kashmir minister and chairman of the Panthers Party, Harsh Dev Singh on Saturday flayed the decision of some Jammu-based leaders to join the Kashmir-centric Apni Party floated by businessman-turned politician Syed Altaf Bukhari, saying that the “political opportunism of these so called pro-Jammu leaders seemed to have touched a new low”.

“Are you strengthening the cause of Jammu or weakening it by joining hands with those who are hell-bent to treat Jammu as their colony,” asked Singh while addressing media here on Saturday.

Singh, who was a cabinet minister in the erstwhile state in the coalition government of the Congress and the PDP in 2002, regretted that in their frantic pursuit for greener pastures, these Jammu-based leaders had decided to support Kashmiri leadership despite having vowed umpteen times to “liberate the people of Jammu from Kashmir’s hegemony”.

“And in the process, they were strengthening those who had all along been promoting separatist ideology and raising the slogans of self-rule besides sympathizing with anti-India forces”, Singh said.

In their desperation to gain access to power, they appeared to have abandoned all their principles and pious declarations of empowerment of Jammu, rued Singh.

The Panthers Party chief did not name anyone but his comments seemed directed at two Congressmen – former minister and president of the Samba district Congress committee Sardar Manjit Singh and Jammu district Congress president Vikram Malhotra who resigned from their posts and primary membership of the party on Friday to join Apni Party.

“Politics is game of shocks and surprises. It’s often called a hobby for clever characters who change colours faster than chameleons. This is being repeatedly proved in the political landscape of Jammu and Kashmir. The political atmosphere of J&K is being made toxic by defectors. The founders of the newly proposed party were the members of PDP and other Kashmir based parties who abandoned their respective parent parties to fulfill their political ambitions. And the Jammu-based leaders are jettisoning their parties as well as their pious slogans for their personal expediencies, deliriously oblivious to the damage they would be doing to the cause of Jammu,” said Singh.

The Panthers Party which contested 60 out of 87 seats in the 2014 Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections drew a blank for the first time in 18 years. It lost all their three seats it had held.

Singh observed that trusting the devil was neither wisdom, nor expediency.

“Joining the party of defectors would be a Himalayan blunder. The founders of the new party are reportedly being dubbed as ‘traitors’ in Kashmir in view of their bonhomie with BJP. They have no feet to stand even in Kashmir. How could they help you in Jammu? Don’t embark upon this self destructive course. Don’t mix politics with business. You will only be shooting yourself in the foot by frolicking with devil incarnate,” asserted Singh.

Singh said that his party alone had the capacity and the strength to confront the anti-Jammu forces and to uphold the Dogra pride and honour which was under threat not only from Kashmir-based parties but also the national level parties.

HT