Ruhullah links his resignation to accountability

‘NC’s political position on J&K not different from BJP’

Excelsior Correspondent

Srinagar, Aug 28: Member of Parliament and National Conference leader Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi today said his resignation from the party would come, but demanded "accountability" from the leadership before stepping down.

In a strongly worded letter addressed to NC president Dr Farooq Abdullah, Ruhullah said his resignation would come "even without you asking" but insisted that "before that must come accountability."

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The letter comes days after Abdullah publicly questioned Ruhullah's position and demanded his resignation.

The MP hit back at the party leadership, saying the NC's political position on J&K had now become "no different from that of the BJP's", particularly with the party focusing on restoration of statehood rather than Article 370.

"In the same press statement you said, 'You want 370, but you beg from Delhi.' But the uncomfortable truth is that we are not even 'begging' for Article 370. We are 'begging' for statehood," Ruhullah wrote.

He questioned the rationale behind the NC including restoration of Article 370 in its 2024 Assembly election manifesto if the party now believed that the provision could not be restored.

"Why did we include the restoration of Article 370 in our manifesto? Were we making promises we knew we could not keep or perhaps never truly intended to keep?" he asked.

The MP described the alleged shift in the party's position as more than a political misjudgment, calling it "a brazen moral failure" if the people of Jammu and Kashmir had been deliberately misled after voting for the party with "hope, trust and the expectation that we would honour our word."

He also rejected criticism that his stand on Article 370 was politically impractical, arguing that elected representatives should not limit their aspirations to what the BJP-led Centre was willing to concede.

"Our job as elected representatives is to fight this constant degradation and dehumanisation - and not to adjust our aspirations to what the BJP is willing to concede," he said.

Ruhullah further argued that treating restoration of statehood as the outer limit of J&K's political demands would amount to legitimising and normalising the constitutional changes made in August 2019.

"Restoration of statehood cannot be treated as an adequate substitute for what was taken away," he said, insisting that the party should continue to push for "constitutional guarantees" for the people, their traditions, resources and land.

The NC leader also questioned Abdullah over his opposition, recalling that Abdullah had been Chief Minister when the J&K Assembly passed the Autonomy Resolution.

"Why, then, has the mere mention of constitutional guarantees for Jammu-Kashmir now become so offensive that you felt compelled to publicly demand my resignation?" Ruhullah asked.

"What has changed - the aspirations of our people, or the JKNC's willingness to stand up for them?" he said.

Ruhullah also responded to Abdullah's remarks about his political background, saying he was "the inheritor of a long tradition of martyrdom" and the "proud son of a martyr".

He reminded Abdullah that it was he who had personally invited him to join the NC.