In a major development, it has been reported that the JNU student leader, Shehla Rashid Shora is going to join a soon-to-be-launched political party. The Print reported that a source has told it that Rashid is set to join active politics as a member of fellow Kashmiri and former IAS officer Shah Faesal’s soon-to-be-launched party. As per the report, the source said, “Shora is going to join Shah Faesal, who is launching a new political party.” The source added, “She is getting a central position in the core team. She has been working closely with Faesal over the past few months and was involved in the decision-making process for the inception of the party.”
Shehla Rashid is a former vice-president of the JNU Students’ Union and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Technology and Citizen-State Relations at the JNU. She came in the limelight in 2016 after a protest had been organised in JNU on the death anniversary of convicted terrorist, Afzal Guru. The event obviously invited widespread criticism and backlash. Her fellow students JNU students Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya were arrested for the protest against the hanging of the convicted terrorist.
Shehla Rashid Shora had led protests following the arrest of the above-stated trio. A source close to Rashid said, “She will be doing the same things, organising protests to raise the same issues she currently pursues, but her message will get amplified now.”
Shah Faesal, an ex-IAS officer, had announced his decision to float a political party last month. He had said, “I want to participate in elections… We are not going to join any existing party, we are going to start our own party, I want to make that announcement from the NDTV studio.” The interview was given at a time of heightened Indo-Pak tensions. The ex-IAS officer who had resigned from service on January 9 saying that Muslims had been reduced to second-class citizens, went on to state in the interview that at that time it was about existence and not elections. Shah Faesal argued that for the “last three days, it has been horrible, we (Kashmiris) have really felt like the jets are going to crash on our heads.” This statement though insensitive did not come as much of a surprise. In fact, at that time the entire left-liberal cabal was acting as if India was pushing too hard post the dastardly Pulwama terror attack. Faesal’s remarks make the ideology and agenda of the soon-to-be-launched party very clear.
