Congress holds protest march in Srinagar demanding restoration of Jammu & Kashmir statehood

Srinagar: Stepping up pressure on the Centre ahead of the upcoming Parliament session, the Congress party on Saturday held a protest march in Srinagar demanding the immediate restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.

The march follows a joint letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi by Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge earlier this week, urging him to introduce a bill in Parliament for this purpose.

The protest march began from the Congress party headquarters in Srinagar and the party also announced a larger national-level campaign, including a ‘Delhi Chalo’ program on July 22, during which Congress workers plan to gherao Parliament to press for their demand.

Talking to reporters, J&K Congress president Tariq Hamid Karra said the people of Jammu and Kashmir had been misled by repeated assurances that have not been fulfilled. “For us, the assurances given in Srinagar turned out to be nothing more than empty words,” Karra said.

“Keeping this in mind, both leaders—Kharge Ji and Rahul Gandhi Ji—wrote a letter in which they included the dates and instances when these assurances were made, and stated clearly: ‘No more waiting.’”

Karra said the Congress had decided to intensify its statehood campaign through a series of protests. “We launched the ‘Chalo Srinagar, Chalo Jammu’ campaign on the 19th in Srinagar and will hold a similar protest in Jammu on the 20th. This will be followed by the ‘Chalo Delhi’ march on the 21st, where our senior leadership will raise the demand for immediate restoration of statehood in the national capital,” he said.

In their letter to the Prime Minister, the Congress leaders reminded Modi that the downgrading of Jammu and Kashmir from a full-fledged state into a Union Territory was an unprecedented move in independent India’s history. The letter also referred to the Central government’s assurance to the Supreme Court that statehood would be restored “at the earliest.”

The Congress is mobilising workers and leaders from across the Union Territory to participate in the protest in New Delhi, alongside some members of parliament and I.N.D.I.A. alliance leaders.

The Congress’s renewed push for statehood comes nearly six years after Jammu and Kashmir was stripped of its special status under Article 370 and bifurcated into two Union Territories—J&K and Ladakh—in August 2019. While the Centre has repeatedly promised to restore statehood after assembly elections, no concrete timeline has been given so far.

With the monsoon session of Parliament around the corner, the Congress appears keen to make the issue a central talking point, both inside and outside the House.