The politics of an endless tomorrow

The useful part

A promise that fails, however, can acquire an unexpected political afterlife. It can be repeated, refined, mourned, blamed on circumstances, and eventually presented to the electorate once again—as though its previous failure were itself evidence of the sincerity of those who made it. In this peculiar economy of democratic politics, the unfulfilled promise can become more durable than the fulfilled one.

How it works

• The unfolding political episode involving Aga Ruhullah Mehdi appears to be approaching precisely such a moment.
• A politician may leave a party when he believes that it has abandoned a principle, and a citizen has every right to seek electoral vindication.
• The circumstances raise a question that is considerably more important than the resignation itself: what exactly is the electorate being asked to renew?
• Mehdi was elected to Parliament in 2024 in a political campaign in which the restoration of Article 370 occupied a central place.
• He spoke of carrying the political aspirations of Jammu and Kashmir to Parliament and of pursuing the struggle for constitutional rights.

Details worth keeping

Politics has a curious relationship with unfinished promises. There is, of course, nothing inherently illegitimate about any of this. He did not present the issue merely as a matter of historical sentiment.