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In Ruhulla’s Resignation, Has New Delhi Killed Two Birds with One Stone?

Ruhullah's resignation has shaken the National Conference. Ram Madhav's carefully timed remark has cast a shadow over the rebel himself. Was this merely political commentary, or something far more consequential?

In Kashmir, political resignations are seldom simple departures. They are announcements, accusations, provocations and sometimes the beginning of entirely new political equations. But Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi’s resignation from the National Conference and Parliament on November 3 has produced an intriguing question: Has New Delhi managed to kill two birds with one stone?

The first bird is the National Conference. The second, perhaps, Ruhullah himself.

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What makes this possibility worth examining is not merely the resignation, but what followed – or, more precisely, what BJP national vice-president Ram Madhav chose to say about it.

Speaking to journalists, Madhav declared that Ruhullah was holding his Budgam rally with the blessings of “our people.” In the same breath, he maintained that the BJP had nothing to do with the National Conference’s internal affairs.

What an extraordinary juxtaposition!

If the BJP has nothing to do with the affair, what exactly were those blessings? Who offered them? What form did they take? And why did Madhav consider it necessary to disclose them publicly?

These questions deserve answers, not because Madhav’s remarks establish any conspiracy – they do not – but because politics is as much about perception as participation.

The First Bird: National Conference

Ruhullah’s resignation could hardly have come at a more inconvenient moment for the National Conference.

Omar Abdullah’s government is already confronting internal disagreements, questions over ministerial appointments and criticism concerning its electoral commitments. Ruhullah’s departure has now transformed an internal ideological disagreement into an open political rupture.

He was no ordinary dissenter. As the party’s Srinagar parliamentarian, a prominent Shia leader and an outspoken critic of the August 2019 constitutional changes, Ruhullah represented a distinct voice........

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