SRINAGAR: Estranged National Conference Lok Sabha MP Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi on Friday said he would resign from Parliament, but insisted that the party leadership must first answer questions over what he described as a shift in its position on Article 370.
In a two-page letter addressed to NC president Farooq Abdullah, who had publicly asked him to seek a fresh mandate if he disagreed with the party line, Mehdi said his resignation would come “even without you asking”, but maintained that accountability must precede it.
Taking to X, the Srinagar MP said he had written to the party president in response to Abdullah’s public demand for his resignation and was awaiting answers to the questions raised in the letter.
Mehdi referred to Abdullah’s recent remarks urging the people of Kashmir to become self-reliant rather than seek economic concessions from the Centre, saying the statement reflected the frustration of being expected to adopt a “posture of supplication” before the BJP-led Government.
He, however, questioned why similar concerns raised by him over Jammu and Kashmir’s constitutional rights had invited criticism from within the party.
“The uncomfortable truth is that we are not even ‘begging’ for Article 370; we are ‘begging’ for statehood — a right the Supreme Court itself has recognised,” Mehdi said, alleging that the NC’s present political position was becoming difficult to distinguish from that of the BJP.
His letter comes amid reports that he may resign from the Lok Sabha on November 3, the death anniversary of his father Aga Syed Mehdi, who was killed in an IED blast on November 3, 2000. Mehdi himself, however, did not announce a specific date for his resignation in the letter.
The MP warned that treating restoration of statehood as the maximum political objective could amount to accepting the constitutional changes of August 2019 and weakening safeguards relating to land, culture and the environment.
Questioning the party’s political narrative, Mehdi recalled that the National Conference had contested the 2024 Assembly elections on a manifesto promising restoration of Articles 370 and 35A.
“Today, we conveniently argue that the very regime which abrogated Article 370 will never restore it,” he said.
Mehdi argued that the BJP was already in power when the NC drafted its 2024 manifesto and asked why restoration of Article 370 was included if the party believed it could not be achieved.
“Were we making promises we knew we could not keep or perhaps never truly intended to keep? Did we invoke the wound inflicted on the people of Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019 merely to derive political mileage, only to conveniently forget our promises after government formation?” he asked.
He said that if electoral promises had been made without an intention to pursue them, it would amount not merely to a political misjudgment but to a serious moral failure towards people who had voted in the hope that the party would honour its commitments.
Mehdi also highlighted unemployment and economic uncertainty, particularly among young people, besides raising concerns over land, natural resources, religious rights, language and environmental degradation.
“Our land is up for grabs. Our resources benefit everybody but us. Our religious rights, traditions and language face constant pressure,” he said, while also referring to illegal deforestation, mining and construction in ecologically fragile areas.
The Srinagar MP maintained that elected representatives should resist what he termed the continuing erosion of political and constitutional rights rather than reduce public aspirations to what the BJP-led Centre may be willing to concede.
He said restoration of statehood could not be treated as a substitute for the constitutional position that existed before August 2019.
Mehdi also reminded Abdullah that, during his tenure as Chief Minister, the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly had passed the Autonomy Resolution in July 2000 seeking greater autonomy for the erstwhile State.
“I do not ask these questions out of disrespect,” Mehdi said, asking why raising the issue of constitutional guarantees had now become objectionable within the National Conference.
“What has changed — the aspirations of our people, or the JKNC’s willingness to stand up for them?” he asked.
Mehdi said he would await Abdullah’s response, adding that the people of Jammu and Kashmir also had a right to know what the National Conference “truly stands for”.
