NC MP Warns Omar Abdullah Govt: Resolve Reservation Policy by Dec 20 or Face Protests

In an unprecedented escalation within the ruling National Conference, Srinagar MP Aga Ruhullah Mehdi has handed Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s government a non-negotiable December 20 ultimatum to comprehensively resolve the deeply divisive reservation policy, declaring that he will personally join thousands of aggrieved students in street protests if the administration continues to ignore their legitimate demands.

Ruhullah sharply criticised the government for its prolonged insensitivity towards the “agony and hopelessness” afflicting Open Merit youth, whose career prospects have been systematically eroded by a quota regime that reduced general category representation to a mere 30 per cent while elevating reserved categories to 70 per cent through multiple amendments introduced by the Centre over the past five years.

Recounting a trail of broken commitments — an initial six-month assurance that stretched into a full year, followed by vague promises of resolution in “a few days” before the Budgam by-election that have now lapsed into weeks of silence — the MP warned that even a belated solution cannot undo the irreversible damage inflicted by lost recruitment cycles and permanently filled vacancies.

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Pointing to a fresh incident at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University as evidence of escalating unrest, Ruhullah offered to temporarily withdraw from public view for an entire month if it facilitated genuine dialogue, urging the Chief Minister to directly meet protesting students, immediately publish the cabinet sub-committee report already forwarded to Lt Governor Manoj Sinha, and implement a rational, equitable reservation framework acceptable to all sections of society.

With intra-party tensions already at boiling point following the National Conference’s historic defeat in its Budgam stronghold — a loss publicly attributed by Omar Abdullah to Ruhullah’s refusal to campaign — the MP’s threat to launch an indefinite sit-in alongside the youth after Parliament’s winter session ends on December 20 has sent shockwaves through the establishment, placing the government’s credibility and the party’s unity under unprecedented strain.

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