Srinagar, Aug 28: Srinagar MP and National Conference leader Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi has escalated his differences with party president Dr Farooq Abdullah, saying he would resign but insisting that “accountability must come first”.
In a detailed letter to Abdullah dated August 28, Ruhullah questioned the National Conference’s position on the restoration of Article 370 and argued that statehood cannot be treated as a substitute for the constitutional protections removed in August 2019.
Ruhullah said he was responding to recent remarks by Abdullah, including, “How long will you be a slave? You have to stand on your feet sometimes. When will you stand?” He also referred to Abdullah’s reported remark, “You want 370, but you beg from Delhi.”
Addressing Abdullah as “Doctor Sahab”, Ruhullah said the remarks reflected a frustration felt by many people in Jammu and Kashmir.
“I must confess, those words resonated deeply with me. They captured a frustration many of us in Jammu-Kashmir feel: that even while asking for what is rightfully ours, we are expected to assume a posture of supplication before the BJP,” he wrote.
Ruhullah questioned the party’s current emphasis on restoration of statehood instead of Article 370 and 35A.
He said statehood was a right recognised by the Supreme Court and had also been promised by the BJP in its 2024 Assembly election manifesto. Accepting statehood as the limit of the party’s demands, he argued, would amount to “legitimising and normalising the constitutional assault of August 2019”.
Ruhullah also questioned why the NC included restoration of Articles 370 and 35A in its 2024 election manifesto if the party believed the commitments could not be fulfilled.
“Were we making promises we knew we could not keep or perhaps never truly intended to keep?” he asked.
He said he did not want to be part of what he described as a political “lie”, alleging that he had faced a “coordinated campaign of rebuke” within the party over his position.
Defending his position, Ruhullah said Article 370 represented the struggle for the dignity, constitutional guarantees and liberties of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
He also highlighted unemployment, land and resources, religious rights, language, traditions and environmental degradation as issues requiring political attention.
“Nearly 65% of Jammu and Kashmir’s population is young, and their future is increasingly uncertain, with no jobs and opportunities. Our land is up for grabs. Our resources benefit everybody but us,” he wrote.
He said elected representatives should seek stronger constitutional safeguards rather than limit their aspirations to what the BJP government was willing to concede.
Ruhullah also referred to Abdullah’s political record, recalling that he was chief minister when the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir Assembly passed the Autonomy Resolution.
“I do not ask these questions out of disrespect. I ask them because I remember that you were the Chief Minister of the very Assembly that passed the Autonomy Resolution. That, too, must have required courage,” he wrote.
“What has changed, the aspirations of our people, or the JKNC’s willingness to stand up for them?” he asked.
On the question of his resignation, Ruhullah said he would await Abdullah’s response to the issues raised in his letter.
“There are many more questions. But for now, I will await your response to these and so will the people of Jammu-Kashmir, who have a right to know what the JKNC truly stands for,” he wrote.
“Rest assured, the resignation will come. It would have come even without you asking but before that must come accountability.”
The letter marks a further escalation in Ruhullah’s differences with the NC leadership over Article 370, statehood and the party’s political position on the constitutional changes of August 2019.
