{"id":1808,"date":"2025-10-21T20:40:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T20:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/?p=1808"},"modified":"2025-10-21T20:40:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T20:40:15","slug":"budgam-protests-dy-cms-remarks-on-mp-ruhullah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/2025\/10\/21\/budgam-protests-dy-cms-remarks-on-mp-ruhullah\/","title":{"rendered":"Budgam protests Dy CM’s remarks on MP Ruhullah"},"content":{"rendered":"

Budgam, Oct 21:\u00a0<\/strong>Protests broke out in Ichgam, Budgam, and several other areas of central Kashmir on Tuesday following a viral video of Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Kumar Choudhary. In the footage, he was purportedly heard saying, \u201cWho Agha? I don\u2019t know him, I know only Agha Mehmood, who is our candidate for the Budgam by-elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

The remarks triggered widespread anger among locals and supporters of National Conference MP Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi, who took to the streets demanding an apology from the Deputy CM for what they termed as a \u201cdisrespectful\u201d statement against a senior political leader.<\/p>\n

Visuals from protest sites showed large crowds chanting slogans and expressing strong opposition to Choudhary\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n

Amid mounting backlash, the Deputy CM issued a clarification, stating that his remarks were \u201cmisinterpreted\u201d and taken out of context. Speaking to reporters in Srinagar, Choudhary explained that there was \u201ca lot of rush, noise, and commotion\u201d at the venue when he made the statement, which led to confusion over whom he was referring to.<\/p>\n

\u201cYesterday\u2019s statement was not about Aga Ruhullah. There was a huge rush and noise at that time. I was speaking about the BJP candidate. Aga Ruhullah Sahib is an honourable MP and senior leader of the National Conference,\u201d Choudhary clarified.<\/p>\n

He further said that someone at the venue had asked him a question about \u201cAga\u201d, to which he responded about the BJP candidate, not the MP. \u201cSomeone asked me a question about Aga… oh, the BJP candidate. I replied that I don\u2019t know that Aga, I don\u2019t recognise him. But as far as Aga Ruhullah Sahib is concerned, he\u2019s a respected MP, I know him personally and have even visited his house,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The Deputy CM also accused sections of the media of distorting his comments to \u201cincrease TRPs\u201d. \u201cThe media\u2019s job now seems to be to twist statements for headlines. I have nothing to do with that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the upcoming Budgam by-election, Choudhary expressed confidence in the National Conference\u2019s prospects, saying, \u201cBudgam has always been a National Conference seat. Aga Ruhullah Sahib and Aga Mehmood Sahib will work together to ensure victory for the party. Under Aga Ruhullah Sahib\u2019s leadership, we are confident that the NC candidate will win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite his clarification, protests continued across several parts of Budgam throughout the day, with demonstrators insisting that the Deputy CM should offer a public apology to quell the growing outrage\u2014(KNO)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Budgam, Oct 21:\u00a0Protests broke out in Ichgam, Budgam, and several other areas of central Kashmir on Tuesday following a viral video of Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Kumar Choudhary. In the footage, he was purportedly heard saying, \u201cWho Agha? I don\u2019t know him, I know only Agha Mehmood, who is our candidate for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1808"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1810,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1808\/revisions\/1810"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}