Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday welcomed the letter written by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanding the restoration of full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.
Interacting with media, the Chief Minister thanked the top leadership of the Congress for taking up the issue with the Union Government.
"This is a welcome move. I thank Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi for raising this issue. We are not demanding anything that hasn't already been promised to us. We've been told several times that statehood will be restored at an appropriate time," Omar said.
He asserted that the time has come for the Centre to honour its repeated commitments.
"Jammu and Kashmir should be granted full statehood without further delay. The Central Government must honour its promises made in Parliament, public forums, and even before the Supreme Court," he added.
Omar also recalled that when the Supreme Court delivered its verdict on Article 370, it had emphasized the need to restore statehood at the earliest.
"The phrase 'as soon as possible' has already long passed. Now, Jammu and Kashmir must be granted statehood without further delay," he said.
J&K Congress to intensify statehood movement
Meanwhile, the Jammu and Kashmir Congress has decided to intensify its campaign for the restoration of statehood by holding protest demonstrations in Jammu, Srinagar, and Delhi in the coming days.
This decision was taken at an emergency meeting of senior party leaders held at the Congress headquarters in Jammu under the chairmanship of J&K Congress president Tariq Hameed Karra.
Karra said the Congress party has consistently opposed the arbitrary, unconstitutional, and undemocratic disbanding and downgrading of the historic state of Jammu and Kashmir and has been demanding its restoration from day one.
He said that despite organizing a series of protests, dharnas, and public meetings across Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP-led Central Government has remained silent on its own promise made on the floor of Parliament.
The J&K Congress chief further stated that the continuation of dual control even after the dissolution of the elected government is an insult to the people's mandate.
He announced that the party will organize strong protest demonstrations in Jammu and Srinagar, followed by a peaceful dharna in Delhi in the coming days, keeping in view the upcoming Parliament session.
"This is to press the Central Government to bring legislation for the restoration of full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir, in line with the directions of the Supreme Court," Karra said.
Notably, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday jointly wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to introduce a bill in the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament to restore full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.
In their joint letter, Kharge and Gandhi stated that for the past five years, the people of the Union Territory have been consistently demanding the restoration of their statehood.
"This demand is both legitimate and firmly rooted in the constitutional and democratic rights of the people," the letter read.
They also pointed out that while Union Territories have been granted statehood in the past, the case of Jammu and Kashmir is unprecedented in independent India.
"This is the first time that a full-fledged state has been downgraded to a Union Territory following its bifurcation," they emphasized.
