Amid political upheaval in Jammu and Kashmir following the abrogation of Article 370, a new political party has emerged under the name of “Apni Party”, which is seen as a new ‘Normalcy Balloon’ of Narendra Modi-led Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in New Delhi. The new party launched recently by Altaf Bukhari (a minister in PDP Mehbooba’s government), consists of former leaders from Indian National Congress, National Conference, and Peoples Democratic Party, claiming to work for the welfare of the people, but no roadmap was discussed and no words were minced about statehood and Article 370. Political experts termed the new party as a group of opportunists, who changed their affiliations amid tough times. The emergence of a new political party in the erstwhile state could be understood as an amalgam of political leaders who managed their freedom by signing a bond to evade arrests, unlike mainstream politicians, including three former chief ministers – Dr Farooq Abdullah, his son Omar Abdullah and PDP patron Mehbooba Mufti – who have been invoked with Public Safety Act for defiance and not budging to orders of New Delhi. The hypotheses that Apni Party is dummy of the BJP could be realized from the fact that when all the political activities in India-held Kashmir have come on a standstill, how a new party emerged with such fanfare. We have seen in the past as well that when many political leaders were thrown into jails, house arrests in the apprehension of causing public uprising in wake of abrogation of the special status of India-held Kashmir in August 2019, only the BJP carried a couple of membership drives in the valley without any obstruction. When many national leaders had to approach apex court to get permission to visit Kashmir, how leaders of the BJP enjoyed immunity to carry on membership campaigns. Similarly, when all the mainstream leaders of India-held Kashmir are languishing behind bars, how come Apni Party got approval to start its activities? The BJP has welcomed the launch of the new party, despite the fact that already democratically elected leaders are behind bars This is probably not the first time that New Delhi has tried to show that normalcy is prevailing in the occupied Kashmir post abrogation of Article 370. Earlier as well, two delegations of the European Union were planted to visit India-held Kashmir, with hope to send a message that everything is normal. Even when the democratically elected leaders are languishing in jails, the emergence of the new party appeared to be revisit of Kashmir history, where once after the arrest of Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah on August 9, 1953, Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad took over as Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir and continued to remain the Prime Minister till 1964. Historically, the National Conference sees Ghulam Mohammad Bakshi as the one who betrayed Sheikh Abdullah and the National Conference. Bukhari is not new to the complex politics of India-held Kashmir, having played a direct or indirect role in governments from 1984 onwards – last having staked claim himself as a the PDP defector on the dismissal of the Mehbooba government in 2018. While a complete picture would emerge only with time, a few strokes are clear from the move. The development has happened amid attempts at carrying out the second round of panchayat elections. Taken together with the newly formed Delimitation Commission, New Delhi is sending a clear assurance to all those interested and concerned that participatory democracy is back in the valley for good. Most of the top brass of the Apni Party is drawn from the second rung of the Mufti party. The likes of Ghulam Hassan Mir, who might have played an important behind the scenes role, and veteran Dilawar Mir are from the founding group of the PDP. Javed Hussain Beg is the nephew of PDP stalwart Muzzafar Beg. If the PDP was an experiment from the first BJP government that went awfully wrong, it has been brought to an end. Observers are perplexed on a couple of more counts. One, the way Sajjad Lone, a sane, vocally pro-India voice has been given a short shrift is beyond comprehension. Two, in the past six months the most visible and vocal politician from the valley has been Iltija Mufti! The daughter of Mehbooba has been making good of her presence outside the internet-shadow region to articulate the Mufti viewpoint, making some in Srinagar wonder if this too was planned. Three, with elections not happening at least this year, what will keep the people bound to the rag-tag party of Bukhari, given they can make promises but there is no window to execute them anytime soon. The BJP has welcomed the launch of the new party, despite the fact that already democratically elected leaders are behind bars. Altaf Bukhari has found his hero in Ghulam Mohammed Bakshi, a former prime minister of India-held Jammu and Kashmir, who is widely seen as a “traitor” by Kashmiris. But Bukhari is not too concerned about what people will say as he sets out to form a new political party, named ‘Apni Party’ (Our Party). Bukhari had a luncheon meeting with PM Security Adviser Ajit Doval in Delhi in October 2019. This meeting indicates that Bukhari was in touch with the union government through its top official and planned and formed the new outfit JK Apani Pary to facilitate the centres’ proposed programmes in the held valley after it lost its status from a State to Union Territory. It appears that Bukhari worked on formation of the Apani Party for four to five months and who are the leaders from PDP and Congress Party to be included in the new outfit-Apani Party. The timing is crucial – India-held Kashmir is in the midst of a communication blockade and most mainstream political leaders have been in jail since J&K was stripped of its special status and bifurcated into two Union territories. For many, Bukhari’s move comes as no surprise as the BJP government at the Centre is believed to be trying to prop up a new set of Kashmiri leaders to side-line the likes of former chief ministers Omar Abdullah (NC) and Mehbooba Mufti (PDP), both of whom have been in detention since Article 370 was revoked in August last year. A day after the Bukhari launched the Apani Party, BJP national general secretary Ram Madav said it reflected an “expression of their desire (Kashmiris’) for normal political activities in the Valley.” He also dismissed a suggestion that Bukhari’s party was a “B” team of the BJP. A delegation of Apani Party during their maiden meetings in Delhi with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Home Minister Amit Shah did not even once utter the abrogation of Article 370, but only sought assurances from both the leaders for not allowing non-Kashmiris to purchase land in Kashmir valley to reportedly change its demographic profile. There are more than ten states including Himachal Pradesh in India where the outsiders (those not born in these states) are not allowed to purchase land. This is all that Bukhari (President Apani Party) and his delegation have demanded from the PM and the Home Minister Amit Shah, under whose administrative control is the Union Territory of J&K. The writer is a senior journalist and Indo-Pak peace activist. He is chairman of Society for Promotion of Peace