At Jamia, Kashmir MP Aga Ruhullah Flags Securitisation of Social Issues | Kashmir Life

SRINAGAR: Srinagar Member of Parliament Aga Ruhullah Mehdi on Saturday cautioned against the growing securitisation of social and youth-related issues in Jammu and Kashmir, arguing that problems such as substance abuse are increasingly being viewed through a law-and-order lens rather than as public health and social challenges.

Speaking during an interaction with students at Jamia Millia Islamia, Mehdi said a persistent counter-insurgency mindset had seeped even into civilian life in Jammu and Kashmir, shaping official responses even to deeply personal and social crises. He stressed that young people struggling with substance use should not be treated as criminals but as individuals in need of care, counselling, and rehabilitation.

“Excessive securitisation strips social issues of their human context,” he said, calling on law enforcement agencies in the region to move away from punitive reflexes and towards approaches centred on empathy, recovery, and long-term support.

The interaction, held at the Faculty of Engineering and Technology auditorium, saw students raise questions on education, unemployment, identity, and social pressures facing youth from Jammu and Kashmir. Senior academics and administrators present included Jamia Chief Proctor Mohammad Asad Malik, Associate Proctor Maqsood Ahmad Malik, Arabic professor Abdul Majid Qazi, political science faculty member Shashikant Rai, and Jawaharlal Nehru University post-doctoral fellow Haroon Rashid.

Addressing the students, Mehdi urged them to reject complacency and intellectual passivity, calling excellence and innovation central to both personal growth and social progress. Drawing on religious and philosophical references, including Allama Iqbal, he argued that material success alone could not define individual worth and warned against being trapped in what he described as “petty ambitions”.

Besides, Mehdi cautioned students against becoming uncritical consumers of institutional knowledge, stressing that education should cultivate questioning and original thought. “When questioning stops, innovation dies,” he said, urging students to treat established knowledge as a foundation rather than a conclusion.

Chief Proctor Mohammad Asad Malik, speaking separately, described substance abuse on university campuses as a growing concern and called it a shared responsibility. He said students must remain vigilant, report warning signs, and recognise that their academic years were critical in shaping future trajectories.

Mehdi also spoke about what he described as sustained pressures on Kashmiri identity, urging young people to see cultural preservation, including protection of the Kashmiri language, as a collective responsibility in the face of these challenges.