Srinagar, Nov 08 (HS): Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi, who recently resigned from the National Conference (NC) and the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat, on Sunday hinted at his future course of action, saying he is preparing the ground for a fight for the legitimate rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and is in talks with “the right people” for the purpose.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an event at Beerwah in central Kashmir’s Budgam district, he said: “The National Conference was given a responsibility, but it did not shoulder it. That responsibility now has to be taken up by all of us. We are paving the way for it. We are talking to the right people. We will fight for our legitimate rights.”

Asked further about the NC, he said he did not wish to comment. “I request you (the media) to move on from the National Conference,” he said. “The people and time will answer it.”

Mehdi had announced on November 3 that he was quitting the primary membership of the NC and resigning from the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat, at a large gathering in Budgam on his father’s death anniversary. According to a Gazette notification issued by the Lok Sabha Secretariat on November 5, the Speaker has accepted his resignation with effect from November 3, leaving the Srinagar seat vacant.

Explaining his decision, he said nothing was left for the people after the 2019 decision to abrogate Article 370, and that the need thereafter was to resist and fulfil the promises made to them. He alleged that when he asked the NC why the promises were not being kept, he was told to resign. “When they said they wanted my resignation instead of corrective action, I resigned,” he said.

Asked about inflation and the economic crisis arising from the situation in the Middle East, he said the war has affected not one region but the entire world, and that prices in India, too, have felt its impact.

“The people of America delivered their verdict only yesterday. They punished the government that started the war,” he said. “Similarly, the people of Israel have also rejected the government that started the war. I hope that arrogant powers, wherever they are, will be defeated by their own people.”

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Hindusthan Samachar / Zahoor Hussain Bhat