On March 30, a party convention of the National Conference in Kashmir’s Budgam district witnessed something unusual. A three-time Member of...
On March 30, a party convention of the National Conference in Kashmir’s Budgam district witnessed something unusual. A three-time Member of Legislative Assembly from Budgam and a former cabinet minister, Aga Syed Ruhullah, warned party workers against becoming “collaborators” with those who had accepted the changed status of Jammu and Kashmir. On August 5, 2019, Indian Parliament had stripped the erstwhile state of its special constitutional autonomy under Article 370 and bifurcated it into two union territories.
In the speech, Ruhullah went all guns blazing against his party leadership, the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre, and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological mentor of the BJP. The video of Ruhullah’s 44 minute-long speech went viral.
But it was not the first time Ruhullah had voiced his dissent against the party’s the party’s thrust on restoration of statehood for Jammu and Kashmir, not the reinstatement of Article 370. In May 2020, he had criticised an opinion piece written by his party colleague which called upon the government to release political prisoners, revisit a controversial domicile law, and begin the political process in the union territory – a reference to elections. “Is that all what you are looking for in this reconciliation?” Ruhullah asked on Twitter.
Two months later, Ruhullah...
