‘I set myself free from NC, this is my azaadi,’ says resigned leader Aga Syed Ruhullah

Ruling National Conference (NC) leader and MP Aga Syed Ruhullah resigned from the party as well as the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat on Tuesday, launching a tirade against the NC’s top leadership. He accused Dr. Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah of “betraying promises made to the people and misusing him for electoral gains”.Also read | Who is NC MP Aga Syed Ruhullah, who resigned from the party, seat? | Explained“It’s 2:40 p.m. The very hour my father was martyred 26 years ago in an IED blast on the Magam road [in 2000] by those forces that could not stomach his integrity. This is the time I set myself free from NC. This is my azaadi. There are people who cry for the seat of power, but I feel at peace shunning the chair I am holding,” said Mr. Ruhullah, who put on a show of strength with his supporters in Budgam’s Behishti Zehra Park.Mr. Ruhullah announced that his resignation will be forwarded through Muhammad Ashraf Mattoo the father of Tufail Mattoo — a teenager killed in 2010 during street protests in alleged police firing when Omar Abdullah was in charge.He also resigned from the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat. In a letter to the Speaker, Mr. Ruhullah said, “I hereby resign my seat as the MP representing the Srinagar Parliamentary constituency of J&K in the Eighteenth Lok Sabha, with immediate effect. This resignation is voluntary and genuine, and is tendered of my own free will. I request that it be accepted.”Abdication of politicsIn a separate resignation letter addressed to the party leadership, the 48-year-old Shia cleric said, “We, the people of Kashmir, are in the midst of multiple transitions. The forces behind these are so powerful that we cannot be sure if Kashmir will remain in its present form. Depoliticization and abdication of politics, at this critical time, aids and abets this process of denudation of the people of J&K. I cannot and will not be a party to this. My conscience and ethics will not allow this.”Terming the abrogation of Article 35A and Article 370 in 2019 as “a brazen assault on our rights”, Mr. Ruhullah said, “J&K and its people bear the burden of history. The weight of history hangs on our past, present and future like the Sword of Damocles. This is all the more burdensome since the abrogation of Article 35A and Article 370 in 2019. But 2019 was also paradoxically an opportunity. This called for a struggle, and sacrifice. My assumption then was that the NC, the grand old party of Kashmir, was the natural candidate for the struggle that the situation demanded.” Mr. Ruhullah said he had approached the NC and was “assured of a struggle”. “Based on this assurance, I aligned my politics more vigorously with the NC. What hurt me the most was that the party betrayed the expectations people had from it. This happened at a time when J&K faces an existential threat. But the NC abdicated this space for mere governmentality and for a vain and vague promise of so-called restoration of Statehood,” he added.Mr. Ruhullah accused the NC of “adding insult to injury by aligning itself to a stance of total and absolute abdication”.New partyHinting that he might float a new party, Mr. Ruhullah announced the start of a district-wise campaign from Jammu’s Kathua and Kashmir’s Kupwara. “I ask fathers and mothers to give me youth of character, principles and courage, irrespective of their faith. I will follow them. Time has come to replace donkeys with lions. Let the dedicated youth lead,” said Mr. Ruhullah.Referring to Dr. Abdullah’s remarks in August this year, when he sought his resignation, Mr. Ruhullah accused him and J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah of “reneging on promises made during the 2024 elections”. “I was misused by them for electoral gain,” said Mr. Ruhullah.He launched a sharp attack on CM Abdullah for seeking votes by dropping his skullcap, praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, gifting shawls to Home Minister Amit Shah, and, as he put it “infusing hopelessness among the people rather than putting up a fight against the powerful”.He also accused Mr. Abdullah of betraying and maltreating the voters when they questioned him about the promises made in the manifesto like free electricity, gas cylinders and reservation. “He (Mr. Abdullah) even suggested that drafting a manifesto was wrong, behaving like a prince who would have acquired power regardless. Instead of talking about prisoners, he spoke of protocol. But now J&K’s youth and this nation will bring him down forever. Let him get himself an English passport,” said Mr. Ruhullah.Mr. Ruhullah said the accession to India was aimed at “safeguarding J&K’s identity, culture and dignity.” “The dignity assured to us through the Constitution was described as autonomy. However, in 2019, the same dignity was placed in a shroud. Kashmir saw an erosion from 1953 which culminated in 2019. Our fight is not for Statehood, but Constitutional guarantees and Article 370,” said Mr. Ruhullah, who joined the Omar Abdullah cabinet for the first time in 2009.He also asked the BJP and the RSS “to prepare themselves to hear inconvenient truths on J&K”. “The narrative on J&K will be set by its people and not the Centre. This country was built by people of all faiths. It’s not the personal property of the RSS,” he added.Moral bankruptcyReacting to Mr. Ruhullah’s tirade against the Abdullahs, a NC spokesperson said his speech was “a manifestation of his mental and moral bankruptcy, and an example of his self-obsession”.“While invoking the holy Quran and its divine message of dignity and respect for human beings, Mr. Ruhullah’s speech was full of derogatory, abusive and unparliamentary language against the NC leadership. He is a man who happily remained in office as a minister in 2010 until he was removed in a general reshuffle. He was happy to fight elections in 2014 on a NC ticket and did not remember 2010 then,” said the NC spokesman.The NC said Mr. Ruhullah was the first to welcome the resolution demanding restoration of special status passed by the J&K Assembly. “Wasn’t he elected to Parliament to represent the sentiments of people and garner support from secular parties and MPs? Did he even try to move a resolution or bill in the Parliament? Did he speak out even once against the throttling of the elected government, which is not allowed to function and is run by the Lieutenant Governor through remote control?” the NC said.The NC said while the government knows its limitations given the present scheme of things, it has carefully chosen its roadmap on the issues which are directly linked to our existence and identity.“Our thrust on restoration of Statehood is not and will never be at the expense of the special status. If it was so, the first transition of business of this government would not have been the special status. Mr. Ruhullah’s decision to resign as MP is too late. He should have done it a year ago when he chose to join the forces who were rattled by the NC’s mandate. While a member of the NC, he became instrumental in the defeat of the party in the assembly by-elections to the Budgam seat,” the NC said.The NC said it was astonishing that someone who owes his whole political existence to NC, started his politics in the party, remained MLA for three terms, minister in the government and MP of the party “is so brazenly narcissistic and fault finding after 25 years”.