Srinagar, Aug 28 (KNS) National Conference Lok Sabha member Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi on Friday hit back at party president Farooq Abdullah’s remarks questioning his political background, reminding him that he had personally invited him to join the party.
“I never had to ask to be a part of the JKNC. You personally invited me into it. Not many know this, Doctor Sahab. But you do,” Ruhullah said in a strongly worded letter addressed to Abdullah.
Responding to Abdullah’s reported question about who he was before joining the NC, Ruhullah said he was the “proud son of a martyr” and the inheritor of a “long tradition of martyrdom”.
He urged Abdullah to remember their history before making further public remarks about his political background.
Ruhullah also questioned the NC leadership’s current political position on Jammu and Kashmir, particularly its shift from demanding restoration of Article 370 to seeking restoration of statehood.
He said Abdullah’s recent remarks that people should “stand on their feet” resonated with him, but questioned why he was being criticised for raising similar concerns.
Ruhullah said the NC had promised restoration of Article 370 and 35A in its 2024 manifesto, despite the BJP being in power at the Centre.
He argued that accepting statehood as the outer limit of Jammu and Kashmir’s political aspirations would amount to legitimising the constitutional changes made in August 2019.
“Restoration of statehood cannot be treated as an adequate substitute for what was taken away,” he said.
Ruhullah said elected representatives should continue to push for constitutional guarantees to protect the region’s people, land, resources, traditions and environment, rather than limit their aspirations to what the BJP was willing to concede.
He also questioned why his position on constitutional guarantees had become objectionable to the NC leadership, recalling that Abdullah had been chief minister when the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly passed the Autonomy Resolution.
“What has changed — the aspirations of our people, or the JKNC’s willingness to stand up for them?” he asked.
Ruhullah said he did not seek to remain in the party at the cost of his principles and indicated that his resignation would come, but insisted that accountability must precede it.
“Rest assured, the resignation will come. It would have come even without you asking, but before that must come accountability,” he said.(KNS).