Top News

New Delhi, Aug 5 (PTI): The Congress on Wednesday demanded immediate and unconditional restoration of full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir as well as full constitutional authority for the democratically elected government there.

The Congress also demanded Constitutional safeguards for land and public employment for the people of Jammu and Kashmir as well as adherence to India's constitutional framework, democratic institutions, and federal principles.

The opposition party said that seven years after the abrogation of Article 370 and the bifurcation of the erstwhile state, the people of Jammu and Kashmir are still waiting for full statehood.

In a statement, Congress general secretary in-charge Jammu and Kashmir Syed Naseer Hussain said seven years ago today, the BJP-led Union government unilaterally revoked Jammu and Kashmir's special constitutional status and demoted a full-fledged state to two union territories, the first such demotion in Independent India's history.

"The government justified this rupture as transitional, laying out a four-stage roadmap: reorganisation, delimitation, elections, and restoration of statehood. That final, defining promise remains unredeemed," he said.

Hussain said that from the floor of Parliament to sworn submissions before the Supreme Court and to election rallies in Srinagar and Jammu, the prime minister and the home minister made statehood commitment at least seven times since 2019.

The Congress leader listed the number of occasions such promises were made, starting from August 5, 2019, when Amit Shah told the Rajya Sabha that statehood would be restored "at an appropriate time." "Not once, across seven years and seven reaffirmations, has either leader named a date, a bill, or a parliamentary session for fulfilling this constitutional obligation," Hussain said.

He said that reorganisation, delimitation, and assembly elections were done within the deadline, but statehood alone, the "very culmination" of the government's roadmap, has been consigned to "indefinite suspension." "This is not oversight; it is a deliberate strategy of deferral, in which a phrase as vacuous as 'appropriate time' is deployed, again and again, as a substitute for accountability," the Congress general secretary said.

He said that the elected government of Jammu and Kashmir today functions as a government in name alone, bereft of constitutional powers.

An unelected lieutenant governor, appointed by and answerable solely to New Delhi, continues to wield overriding executive authority over matters that rightfully belong to the people's elected representatives, Hussain said.

"This is not federalism; it is its calculated inversion, and it stands as an indictment of a Government that speaks the language of democracy while withholding its substance," he said.

"We, the Indian National Congress, demand: The full statehood of Jammu & Kashmir must be restored immediately and unconditionally. The people of Jammu & Kashmir must be permitted to govern themselves through institutions vested with complete constitutional authority.

"India's democratic institutions and federal structure must be honoured in substance, and not merely invoked in rhetoric," Hussain said.

The opposition MPs marched in Parliament on Wednesday for statehood.

"Seven years is long enough. The people of Jammu & Kashmir are not subjects to be ruled from Delhi; they are citizens of India, equal in constitutional standing, entitled to the same dignity of self-rule as every other State," the Congress leader said.

"Statehood ... must be restored now, in full, without delay, without excuse, without betrayal," Hussain said. PTI ASK SKC VN VN

(This story is published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)