Sopore, May 21: National Conference MP Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi on Thursday described himself as a “rebel for a cause”, accusing his own party of drifting away from its core ideology of, autonomy, and restoration of Article 370.
In an exclusive interview with Kashmir Convener at Sopore, the Srinagar MP said the National Conference government in Jammu and Kashmir was “running in the opposite direction” from the principles on which the party was founded.
“When the party itself started moving away from its ideology, the dissent appeared,” Ruhullah said. “After 2019, the need to fight for 370 became even greater. People trusted us with a government. But now that government is running in the opposite direction.”
MP Ruhullah, whose parliamentary interventions have often gone viral, rejected the label of “rebel” as a negative. “If being a rebel means demanding that the party works with conviction and honesty on the ideology it was built upon, then yes, I am one,” he said.
He warned that the biggest loss for Kashmir would be the “normalisation and legitimisation” of the post-2019 status quo, when the erstwhile state’s special status was revoked. “If the party does not fulfil its responsibility, the harm will be that this status quo gets normalised. That is the biggest loss,” he said.
The MP cited specific instances where his parliamentary interventions had forced the administration to roll back actions — including the de-marking of a railway line in Pulwama and Anantnag, and a pause on house blasts and mass detentions following an earthquake. “Secrets were being revealed in Parliament. They realised the world is listening,” he said.
On the reservation bill that has triggered youth protests across Kashmir, MP Ruhullah challenged his own government directly. He stated that the cabinet file had been sent to the Lieutenant Governor nearly a month ago. “Either take responsibility, or admit you don’t want to. Don’t hide behind ‘we sent it to LG’,” he said, offering to mobilise students to retrieve the file if the government failed to act.
Asked about political isolation, Ruhullah said: “If you go into isolation because of truth, so be it. Better than joining the flock.”
Despite the criticism, he insisted he remains a National Conference member “by heart and soul” — but on his own terms. “My commitment is to the ideology. The party is far from it. Differences exist because they lack conviction and honesty,” he said.
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