Srinagar, Nov 3 (HS): Srinagar MP Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi, who quit the National Conference (NC) on Tuesday, accused the party in his resignation letter of giving up the political struggle for the rights of Jammu and Kashmir in favour of “mere governmentality”. In a separate letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, he also tendered his resignation as a member of the House.

In his letter to the NC, Ruhullah said the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A in 2019 was a “brazen assault” on the rights of the people. Rights, he wrote, “make a people”, and without them there is “just erasure of a people”. But 2019 was also, he said, “paradoxically” an opportunity to reclaim politics, political space and rights. That, he wrote, called for a struggle, “sacrifices and prices”, and his “working assumption” was that the NC, “the grand old party of Kashmir”, was the “natural candidate” for it.

He said he approached Farooq Abdullah and was assured of a struggle and of the pain the abrogation had caused the NC leader. “Based on this assurance, I aligned my politics more vigorously with the NC,” he wrote, hoping the alignment would “create and catalyze a movement for the restoration of our rights”. “But, alas, this was not to be,” he added.

Ruhullah said he campaigned “vigorously and tirelessly” in the 2024 elections and did not claim credit for the NC’s vote share or seats. “All I will say is I did my best,” he wrote, adding that people poured their anger and expectations on the NC with “a massive mandate”. “But the electoral arena had not yet cooled down, the NC did an about turn,” he wrote.

“Personally, I saw this as a betrayal,” he wrote, but added that “that is politics and part of politics”. What hurt him most, he said, was that the people’s expectations had been betrayed when J&K faced “an existential threat” and “able and determined leadership was needed to take the struggle for rights further”. Instead, he alleged, the NC “abdicated this space for mere governmentality and for a vain and vague promise of so called restoration of statehood”. His attempts to raise the matter with Farooq Abdullah led to strains in their political relationship, he said. “Insult was added to injury when the party aligned itself to a stance of total and absolute abdication,” he wrote.

Ruhullah said the people of Kashmir were in the midst of “many cross cutting transitions” driven by forces so powerful that no one could be sure “Kashmir will remain Kashmir in the not so distant future”. “Depoliticization and abdication of politics, at this critical time, aids and abets this process of denudation of the people of JK. I cannot and will not be party to this,” he wrote. “My conscience and ethics determined politics will not allow this.”

He thanked Farooq Abdullah for the political journey they had shared but said it “will not continue”. “I, hereby, tender my resignation from the party,” he wrote, pledging that, with Allah’s help, he would find a niche and way to serve his people to the best of his ability and capacity. He said he had made the pledge “with my father’s soul and above all with my creator”, and would “stick to principles and not expedience” inspired by his faith, values and ancestral guidance.

In his letter to Speaker Om Birla, Ruhullah invoked Article 101(3)(b) of the Constitution and Rule 240 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha to resign his seat representing the Srinagar Parliamentary Constituency in the Eighteenth Lok Sabha “with immediate effect”. He described the resignation as “voluntary and genuine”, tendered of his “own free will”, and requested that it be accepted.

Sharing the letter on X, Ruhullah wrote: “Honourable Speaker Lok Sabha Om Birla. Email and hard copy will follow.”

---------------

Hindusthan Samachar / Zahoor Hussain Bhat