“My voice no longer matters as no one listens to me”
STC NEWS DESK
SRINAGAR, APRIL 15 (STC): Member Parliament (MP) from Srinagar Aga Ruhullah Mehdi said that his party – National Conference – has “virtually ended” all communication with him. This happened after his participation in a student demonstration against the controversial reservation policy outside the chief minister’s (CM’s) residence last year.
Ruhullah while speaking during a X Space session said, “Until the Assembly elections, my opinions mattered. Even as the party disagreed with my methods, it still supported my ideas. But after the reservation protests, the party stopped engaging with me.”
He said, “I didn’t organise any protest. It was a spontaneous gathering of students who felt betrayed. I just stood with them. If my presence helped raise their voice, I consider it my duty fulfilled,” Ruhullah said. “Call it a protest or anything else, it doesn’t matter. If standing with students made me an enemy in the party, I’m okay with that.”
According to him, the disconnect began right after the elections were over. “From the time they persuaded me to fight the Lok Sabha elections to the period just before the Assembly polls, I was consulted. But soon after, my views stopped being acknowledged,” he said.
The MP stated that the NC leadership has not sought his inputs in recent times, even though he continues to represent the party in Parliament. “There are no takers for my political thinking anymore,” he dished out.
Pointing out the compulsions of his party leadership for preferring ti remain disconnected with him, Ruhullah said, “I know they have to manage equations with the central government for governance. That’s why I didn’t impose my stance on them. At least no one can say that I cost them statehood.”
He further stated: “I have a moral duty to speak for my people both within and outside the party. But this disconnect is eating me up from the inside.”
Ruhullah stressed that his politics wasn’t motivated by ambition. “What I say comes from my conscience, not from any political design. I don’t need to prove it to anyone. God is my judge.”
(STC)