SRINAGAR: In Jammu and Kashmir, politics took a poetic and polemical turn as the apparent internal discord in the ruling Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (JKNC) over the controversial reservation policy led to a unique war of words. The Open Merit category’s reduction to about 45 per cent sparked not only widespread protests but also a remarkable exchange of literary and rhetorical symbols between two prominent JKNC leaders—Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and MP Aga Syed Ruhullah—invoking Rudyard Kipling and Malcolm X to articulate their contrasting stands.
On December 21, 2024, Aga Ruhullah staged a symbolic protest outside Omar Abdullah’s official residence in Srinagar, joined by opposition parties and student groups. The protest centred around the reservation policy, underscored a growing divide within the JKNC. Despite sharing party affiliation, Ruhullah and Omar Abdullah found themselves on opposite sides of the debate – even though sharing the concern, with Ruhullah taking his grievances to the streets rather than resolving them within party forums.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, seeking to downplay the rift, responded with a poetic appeal. He took to social media and quoted lines from Rudyard Kipling’s iconic poem If— to advocate resilience, patience, and calm in the face of challenges:
“If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;”
Words by Rudyard Kipling –
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or…— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) December 23, 2024
The Kipling poem, written in 1895 and first published in 1910, reflects his belief in stoicism, discipline, and moral fortitude. Inspired by the life of British colonialist Leander Starr Jameson, it extols the qualities needed to endure adversity with grace. While the poem has become a timeless guide to leadership and perseverance, its colonial context and imperial undertones have also drawn criticism in modern discourse.
The literary gesture, however, was met with defiance. Ruhullah, invoking Malcolm X’s famous House Negro and Field Negro speech, cast himself as the voice of the marginalised and a critic of perceived complacency within his party. In a pointed social media post, Ruhullah wrote: “And today, you still have house Negroes and field Negroes. I’m a field Negro.”
The House Negro and the Field Negro.
Malcom X“Back during slavery, when Black people like me talked to the slaves, they didn’t kill ’em, they sent some old house Negro along behind him to undo what he said. You have to read the history of slavery to understand this. There were…
— Ruhullah Mehdi (@RuhullahMehdi) December 24, 2024
Malcolm X delivered the House Negro and Field Negro speech in the early 1960s, during the height of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. Using the metaphor of underprivileged people divided by their roles—those in the house who were closer to their masters and those in the fields who endured harsher conditions—Malcolm X critiqued internalised oppression and class divisions within the African American community. The speech resonated with those advocating for a more radical approach to justice, contrasting sharply with the nonviolent ethos of figures like Martin Luther King Jr.
Interestingly, Sajad Lone, who heads the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Conference and was one of the two parties that skipped the Agha-organised protest (the other being Altaf Bukhari’s Apni Party) also used literature to react to the situation. “Adam Grant has dedicated an entire book to The Art of Knowing What You Don’t Know. What we don’t know is a million times more than what we know. And trust me on this,” he wrote on X. “And you are welcome to troll. In Kashmir, nobody will ever know who was on whose side.”
This juxtaposition of Kipling’s call for stoic leadership with Malcolm X’s fiery rhetoric highlighted the ideological chasm between the two leaders. Ruhullah’s protest and his symbolic alignment with the oppressed resonated with some, while others within the party saw it as a breach of discipline.
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Senior JKNC leader Salman Sagar criticised Ruhullah’s actions, calling the protest “an individual action rather than the party’s policy” and warning that it risked damaging its credibility. The Congress, an ally of the JKNC, dismissed Ruhullah’s actions as a publicity stunt, with senior leader GA Mir accusing him of prioritising media attention over constructive dialogue.
Meanwhile, opposition parties seized the moment to challenge the government. Mehbooba Mufti, president of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), accused Omar Abdullah of neglecting merit-based opportunities and urged swift action to address the concerns of open merit aspirants. The BJP also weighed in, warning against any tampering with the rights of marginalised communities and accusing the JKNC of political opportunism.
The reservation policy, an intervention of the post-2019 Jammu and Kashmir systems, reserves more than half of the seats in professional colleges and jobs for a set of communities, including the SC and ST. It has become a flashpoint in Jammu and Kashmir’s politics where lack of opportunities has added a serious crisis to the youth bulge. Ruhullah’s protest has brought the issue to the forefront, exposing not just the challenges of governance but also the fractures within the ruling party of which he is a senior leader.
As the debate over fairness and equity intensifies, the JKNC faces mounting pressure to balance public grievances with internal unity. Omar Abdullah’s poetic diplomacy and Ruhullah’s fiery defiance exemplify the complexity of navigating political and ideological divides in the region’s ever-volatile landscape.
