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National Conference’s Delhi protest intensifies campaign for restoration of Jammu and Kashmir statehood.
NEW DELHI
Jammu and Kashmir’s demand for the restoration of statehood is set to return to the national spotlight on July 20, as the ruling National Conference (NC) takes its campaign to New Delhi with a major protest at Jantar Mantar. The demonstration, however, will coincide with a parallel agitation by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Jammu and Kashmir unit against the Omar Abdullah government’s outsourcing policy, setting the stage for a high-stakes political face-off.
The National Conference is scheduled to hold a demonstration at Jantar Mantar in the national capital on the opening day of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, demanding the restoration of full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir along with the implementation of constitutional commitments made by the Centre.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and NC president Farooq Abdullah are expected to lead the protest. In an effort to build a broad political consensus, the party has invited 56 leaders from across the country, including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, leaders of several Opposition parties, and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has maintained that the protest will proceed even if formal permission from the Delhi authorities is not received in time.
Soon after assuming office, the Omar Abdullah-led Cabinet passed a resolution seeking the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood in its original form. Copies of the resolution were forwarded to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and other senior Union leaders.
However, according to the National Conference, the Centre has made no headway on the issue.
Speaking to ReadNC spokesperson Imran Nabi Dar said party leaders would travel to New Delhi for the protest regardless of whether permission for the demonstration is granted.
“The demand for restoration of statehood is not limited to the National Conference. It belongs to every resident of Jammu and Kashmir, irrespective of political or ideological affiliations,” Dar said.
He added that the party had reached out to leaders across the political spectrum, including the BJP, as well as several organisations, urging them to join the campaign.
“Our objective is to make this a people’s movement because the restoration of statehood is an issue that concerns every resident of Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.
Meanwhile, the National Conference has received backing from its coalition partner, the Jammu and Kashmir Congress, which will join the July 20 protest at Jantar Mantar. The Congress has also announced district-level demonstrations across Jammu and Kashmir on July 19 in support of the demand for statehood.
Jammu and Kashmir Congress president Tariq Hameed Karra said the party could not stay away from the movement as it has consistently campaigned for the restoration of statehood through its Our Principality, Our Rights campaign, hunger strikes, and the Srinagar Chalo, Jammu Chalo and Delhi Chalo programmes. He added that Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi had also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue, while noting that several political parties had not joined the campaign earlier due to their own political compulsions.
The National Conference’s bid to present a united political front has been weakened by the decision of the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Conference (JKPC) and the Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP) to stay away from the July 20 protest.
JKPC chief Sajad Lone questioned the timing of the demonstration, saying his party supports the restoration of Article 370, Article 35A and full statehood, but argued that such major political issues should be pursued through consensus rather than unilateral protests.
Apni Party president Altaf Bukhari also criticised the NC’s move, alleging that the protest was aimed at strengthening the Omar Abdullah government rather than advancing the cause of statehood. He claimed the party had failed to prioritise the issue after coming to power and was raising it now for political reasons.
While the NC-led alliance seeks to mount pressure on the Centre through its statehood campaign in New Delhi, the BJP’s Jammu and Kashmir unit is preparing to hold a Secretariat gherao in Jammu against the Omar Abdullah government’s outsourcing policy, setting the stage for parallel political agitations on the same day.
The simultaneous protests are expected to intensify the political contest in Jammu and Kashmir, with the ruling alliance attempting to mobilise national support for the restoration of statehood, while the BJP focuses on governance issues and policy decisions of the Union Territory government. Together, the demonstrations are likely to mark one of the most significant political flashpoints in Jammu and Kashmir since the Omar Abdullah government assumed office.
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