The Chair & Conscience of Kashmir Politics |
Kashmir politics has seen its share of defections, shifting loyalties and convictions rediscovered when power demands them. But surrendering a parliamentary seat won with nearly 3.57 lakh votes is an altogether different act.
On November 3, Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi resigned from the National Conference and the Lok Sabha, raising a question that Kashmir’s political class can no longer avoid: where does one draw the line when promises made to voters collide with the privileges of power?
At Behisht-e-Zehra Park in Budgam, during the 26th death anniversary of his father, Aga Syed Mehdi, Ruhullah asked the gathering to remember the time, 2:40 pm, as the moment he freed himself from the party. “I am signing my declaration of freedom,” he said.
The posters around him carried a simpler message: “Wada kursi se bada hai.” A promise is bigger than the chair.
There was something unusual about the gesture.
Ruhullah had won the Srinagar parliamentary seat in 2024 by 1,88,416 votes over PDP candidate Waheed Para. Such a mandate gives a politician considerable political capital, and most would find reasons to hold on to it.
His decision has therefore placed a difficult question before those who regard public office as a political possession rather than a public responsibility.
His departure, however, did not emerge from a sudden disagreement.
The distance between Ruhullah and the National Conference has been growing for years. In July 2020, he resigned as the party’s chief spokesperson, arguing that statehood should be the minimum demand rather than the final political objective. His dissatisfaction concerned the direction the party had taken after August 2019 and its response to the constitutional changes imposed on Jammu and Kashmir.
The return of the National Conference to power in 2024 deepened the disagreement.
Ruhullah had campaigned vigorously on a manifesto promising the restoration of Articles 370........