MP Ruhullah draws fire from NC, Cong over quota stir outside CM Omar home

The NC’s youth wing president and Hazratbal MLA Salman Sagar has lashed out at Mehdi for participating in the protest, saying “no one is bigger than the party”. While underscoring that reservation is an important issue, he said Mehdi leading a group of students to the party president and vice-president’s door “should not have happened”. “He is a senior leader and is the sitting MP for Srinagar but he is part of a political party and he cannot be bigger than that,” Sagar said.

Sagar also criticised Mehdi for “sitting with the Opposition” as the protest on Monday was joined by Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders Waheed ur Rehman Para and Iltija Mufti, among others. “These are people always looking for an opportunity to counter us and make our good work look bad. What is their credibility? They have been rejected by the people,” Sagar said.

Sagar said that the Srinagar MP put himself in an “awkward position” since he was “keen on having a larger-than-life image”.

Holding that students have a right to protest, Sagar added that “protest should not coincide with politics”. “Party and its discipline is supreme and it should be used to address the issues of the people. There are several ways of not just getting your point across to the party but also to convince them,” the Hazratbal MLA added.

On Monday, in a post on X after meeting student representatives, CM Abdullah said, “The beauty of democracy is the right to be heard and dialogue in a spirit of mutual cooperation. I have made certain requests of them and given them a number of assurances. This channel of communication will remain open without any intermediaries or hangers on.”

Mehdi has been at the forefront of the reservation issue in J&K, maintaining that he is on the side of the youth and that his position “transcends party lines”. While he is known to take his own position and frame them as “people centric”, he has yet to be officially reprimanded by his party for his role in the Monday protest.

Mehdi has periodically been at odds with his own party on various issues. In 2020, he had resigned as the party’s spokesperson over the NC leadership’s silence on the Centre’s decision to abrogate J&K’s special status. Prior to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Mehdi had also expressed displeasure after the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) – an amalgam of various political parties seeking restoration of J&K’s special status – broke apart as the NC and PDP were unable to arrive at a seat-sharing arrangement.

Since becoming an MP, Mehdi has frequently taken on the Centre. In June, he had asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to apologise if the reports of some government employees being “forced” to walk barefoot for his International Yoga Day event in Srinagar were true. He had also criticised Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla over certain alleged derogatory language used in the House, and asked Birla to remain “unbiased”.

After Allahabad High Court judge Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav allegedly made anti-Muslim remarks at an event organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Mehdi took the initiative to collect the MPs’ signatures to submit a notice for an impeachment motion against Justice Yadav.

Meanwhile, Congress Legislative Party leader Ghulam Ahmad Mir also criticised Mehdi’s presence at the students’ protest, saying this “should not have been done just for the cameras”.

Addressing a press conference Tuesday at the Congress headquarters in Srinagar, Mir said, “He is a responsible MP from the ruling party (in J&K), if he felt the need to represent the issues of the youth, the CM is at his disposal, he should discuss it within the party and the government instead of coming out on the roads and for the benefit of cameras.”

Mir said there are “varying figures” on the composition of the population of J&K, which becomes an issue when deciding on the proportionate reservation. “The best way to address this has already been suggested by Rahul Gandhi ji, which is to have a caste census in the country,” he added.

He also said that Abdullah should be given time to address public concerns considering he has been the CM for just over two months and given J&K’s status as a UT, which limits the elected government’s powers.

After meeting the CM Monday, the student representatives said Abdullah had asked for six months to review J&K’s reservation policy. However, PDP chief and former CM Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday said the time frame sought by the NC government is “too long” since a number of recruitments could take place in the next months and could “push the open merit candidates (in the general category) to the wall”.

She said the NC, despite having three MPs (including Ladakh) and at least 50 MLAs, is still seeking six months to decide on a critical issue “because they believe the court will decide on the matter in that time absolving them of their responsibility”.

With reservations in J&K reaching nearly 60% in education and jobs, general category students have raised their voices against a high quota limiting the number of seats available to them. The issue has also been challenged in the J&K and Ladakh High Court.

Mufti urged the CM to take on this issue and called for a reservation policy “proportional to population” of various communities in J&K.