Art and Science of JKNC

Six months before the first assembly elections in the Union Territory of J&K, over noon chai, homemade butter, walnuts and makki ki roti, I heard a seasoned National Conference leader say with full conviction: “Omar Abdullah will never fight assembly elections in the UT arrangement.”

He believed it. I smiled.

Omar then lost North Kashmir to Engineer Rashid, told the media he would not contest the assembly polls and then ....... Not at one place but two. And won both seats.

That little arc says almost everything about the art and science of the JKNC: instinctively defensive, emotionally reactive, and then ultimately pragmatic but only after creating avoidable distrust.

The “Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi fiasco” is a replay of the same pattern, except this time the cost could be far bigger than one leader’s credibility. It could damage the only remaining space for Kashmiri-led, constitutional politics.

JKNC still has time to correct course. But it must do so without ego, and with a clear understanding: Kashmir needs both Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi and Omar Abdullah together, not as rival brands. And beyond them, Kashmir needs its entire mainstream spectrum of JKNC, JKPDP, JKPC, JKAP to create a political grid strong enough to carry the weight of peace and development in the years ahead.

What JKNC got wrong with Aga – and why it matters

Whatever the exact sequence of events inside the party, the public picture is clear enough:

A leader with a powerful mandate and moral voice, Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi, emerged as the most credible face of post-2019 hurt and dignity politics.

Instead of showcasing him as a core pillar of the party’s future, parts of the JKNC establishment now treat him like a “problem to be managed.”

Mixed signals, guarded body language, anonymous whispers to the media, and visible discomfort at his rising stature creates the impression that the party is threatened by its own asset.

That is the fiasco. Not one meeting, not one statement – but a mindset.

Ruhullah’s politics speaks directly to what people feel about August 5, 2019, disempowerment, humiliation, and the erosion of identity. He does it in the language of faith, memory, and constitutionalism. You can disagree with his emphasis or tone, but not with his authenticity. That authenticity is precisely what a battered mainstream needs to survive.

When a party that claims to represent Kashmiri aspirations appears visibly uneasy with the one leader who articulates those aspirations most unflinchingly, it weakens its own moral claim.

How JKNC can handle this better and to its advantage

JKNC does not need a purge or a palace coup. It needs grown-up politics. Here is what “without ego and with maturity” would look like:

Publicly accept that Ruhullah is not a side character. Treat his mandate and his popularity as central, not peripheral. That means:

Putting him front and centre on issues of identity, Article 370, human rights, and constitutional safeguards.

Not “using” him and then shrinking his role when it comes to power-sharing and decision-making.

Define complementary, not competing roles. Omar Abdullah and Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi represent two essential instincts of Kashmiri politics:

Omar – Administrative experience, organisational control, networks in Delhi and outside, the ability to negotiate and manage governance.

Ruhullah – Moral clarity, ideological coherence on 2019 and after, deep connection with wounded public sentiment, especially among youth and central Kashmir.

JKNC should consciously frame them as two axes of the same project: Omar as the head of government and organisational strategist;

Ruhullah as the conscience-keeper, legislative spearhead, and public voice on dignity and rights.

When you align their roles, you prevent one from being seen as an existential threat to the other.

End the culture of anonymous sniping. Every leak against Ruhullah, every planted story hinting that he is “too rigid” or “too ambitious”, is not just an attack on a leader – it is an attack on the people who voted for what he represents. JKNC can choose to:

Establish an internal forum where leaders of differing emphasis (hard-line on 370 vs more pragmatic, etc.) thrash it out honestly, and

Draw a clear red line: no internal war through media, no character assassination by proxy.

Stage a deliberate, public reconciliation.

Not a token photo-op, but a political signal: A joint press conference where Omar clearly acknowledges Ruhullah’s role in shaping the party’s ideological direction;

Ruhullah, in turn, affirming that his politics sees JKNC not as a vehicle for one man or one family, but as a platform for collective Kashmiri voice – including Omar’s.

You do not heal suspicion with silence. You heal it with clarity.

Why Kashmir needs both Ruhullah and Omar

The temptation is to frame this as a binary: “soft” vs “hard” line, realist vs idealist, negotiator vs resistor. That framing is wrong – and dangerous.

Without an Omar Abdullah, mainstream Kashmiri politics risks becoming pure rage without a roadmap. You can shout, but then what? Who drafts the law, runs the cabinet, negotiates budgets, handles administration, prevents a vacuum?

Without an Aga Ruhullah, the same politics risks becoming technocratic management without a soul. You can govern, but what are you governing for, if you forget the hurt, the history, the broken promises, the August 5 wound?

One without the other produces distortion:

(a)
Only Omar-type politics = efficiency without empathy, survival without self-respect.

(b)
Only Ruhullah-type politics = catharsis without capacity, dignity without a practical pathway.

Kashmir’s reality demands a synthesis:

A politics that can look Delhi in the eye without either capitulation or theatrical posturing – and still deliver roads, jobs, schools, safety, and a sense of future.

You do not craft that by choosing Omar or Ruhullah. You craft it by forcing both instincts to sit at the same table, within the same party, under the same flag.

2025 and beyond: The Kashmir Grid, not Kashmiri silos

The coming political battles in J&K will not just be about the government. They will be about whether there is any substantive Kashmiri left between New Delhi’s power and the street’s despair. For that, fragmentation among Kashmiri-led parties is suicidal. JKNC, JKPDP, JKPC, JKAP may have bitter histories, personal grudges, accusations of complicity or betrayal. Much of that is real, not imagined. But if they continue to treat each other as the main enemy, they will all lose – and with them, the people they claim to represent.

A mature, long-view strategy would include:

Issue-based coordination, not forced merger.

They do not need to become one party, or pretend to like each other. They do need:

A minimum common platform on safeguarding land rights, jobs for locals, freedom of speech, and protection from excesses.

A commitment that on core questions of statehood, demography, and constitutional safeguards, they will not undercut each other in Delhi for short-term favour.

The goal is to build a grid of cooperation robust enough that even if one node is targeted, the broader structure of Kashmiri political agency holds.

Stop outsourcing legitimacy wars to Delhi. Every time a Valley party runs to Delhi to prove the others are “extremist” or “irrelevant”, it hands Delhi a more divided, weaker, more easily managed Kashmir. Competing for New Delhi’s approval is not strategy; it is slow suicide for local agency.

The choice before JKNC – and everyone else

JKNC must decide what it wants to be in this new era:

A private limited company guarded by a small inner circle, suspicious of any leader who can draw a crowd on their own; or

A broad political platform that can contain multiple temperaments, registers and emphases – where Omar Abdullah and Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi are not rivals for a throne, but partners in a long, hard, shared project.

Handling the Ruhullah episode with grace, generosity and clarity would not weaken Omar. It would do the opposite: it would show that he is confident enough to share space, listen to anger, and let a younger, sharper moral voice thrive under the same banner.

Similarly, refusing to let every disagreement turn into a divorce – whether with PDP, PC, or Apni – would not dilute any party’s identity. It would signal a mature understanding that the fight now is not over who gets the bigger bungalow, but over whether Kashmiris retain any serious, constitutional platform at all.

Kashmir’s politics has been punished, manipulated, co-opted, and discredited for years. In 2025 and beyond, it will either rise to the moment with uncommon unity and humility – or sink back into the familiar comfort of egos, factions, and drawing-room certainties.

JKNC’s treatment of Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi, and its willingness to work with other Kashmiri parties, will tell us which path it has chosen.

Ajaz Rashid, social and development entrepreneur.