Srinagar, Aug 28 (KNO): National Conference (NC) Lok Sabha member Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi on Friday questioned his party's "shift" from its 2024 manifesto promise of restoring Article 370 and 35A to "seeking only" restoration of statehood, saying elected representatives should not adjust their political aspirations to what the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is "willing to concede". He further said that his resignation would come but only after accountability.
In a strongly worded letter addressed to NC president Dr Farooq Abdullah, Ruhullah, as per the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), said he was responding to the party chief's August 25 remarks in which he had said, "How long will you be a slave? You have to stand on your feet sometimes. When will you stand?"
Ruhullah asked: "Why should you object when I ask the very same questions?" He said Abdullah's remarks resonated with the frustration felt by people in Jammu and Kashmir.
He said that while Dr Farooq had criticised people for "begging from Delhi" for Article 370, the current political position of the NC was effectively limited to seeking restoration of statehood.
"We are not even 'begging' for Article 370. We are 'begging' for statehood -- a right the Supreme Court itself has recognised, and the BJP promised in its 2024 Assembly election manifesto. In other words, the JKNC's position is now no different from that of the BJP's," he said.
The Srinagar MP argued that accepting statehood as the "outer limit" of Jammu and Kashmir's political aspirations would legitimise and normalise the constitutional changes made in August 2019.
Such an approach, he said, could also result in the loss of constitutional protections that he described as essential to safeguarding Jammu and Kashmir's "unique geo-political reality, culture, traditions, and fragile environment."
Mehdi recalled that the NC had campaigned on restoration of Articles 370 and 35A and questioned why the party included the promise in its 2024 manifesto if it believed the BJP government would never restore the provisions.
"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.
He further questioned whether the party had invoked the "wound" of August 2019 for political gains only to abandon its promises after forming the government.
"If so, then this is not merely a political misjudgment. It is a sin, a brazen moral failure of deliberately misleading an entire population," Ruhullah said.
The MP said he did not want to be part of what he described as a political "lie", and alleged that he had subsequently become the target of a "coordinated campaign of rebuke" from the party president and others.
Ruhullah also defended his continued advocacy for constitutional guarantees, saying Article 370 represented, for him, the broader struggle for the "dignity, honour, constitutional guarantees and liberties" of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
He highlighted concerns over unemployment among young people, land, natural resources, religious rights, traditions, language and environmental degradation.
"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.
Mehdi said that restoration of statehood could not be treated as an adequate substitute for what was taken away in August 2019 and called for constitutional safeguards to protect the region's people, resources, land and traditions.
Questioning Dr Abdullah's demand for his resignation, Ruhullah recalled that the NC president had served as chief minister when the Jammu and Kashmir 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?" he asked. "What has changed -- the aspirations of our people, or the JKNC's willingness to stand up for them?"
Ruhullah said he was not raising the questions out of disrespect but wanted answers from the party leadership and the people of Jammu and Kashmir had a right to know what the NC "truly stands for".
He also addressed Abdullah's reported remarks questioning who he was before joining the NC. "Humbly put, I am the inheritor of a long tradition of martyrdom. I am also the proud son of a martyr," Mehdi said.
The Srinagar MP claimed that he had personally been invited by Abdullah to join the NC and urged the party president to remember that before making further public remarks about his political background.
"Rest assured, the resignation will come. It would have come even without you asking, but before that must come accountability," Ruhullah said—(KNO)