Onlykashmir.in News Desk
Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday spearheaded a joint demonstration by INDIA bloc constituents and Jammu and Kashmir National Conference Members of Parliament inside the Parliament complex, renewing the demand for immediate restoration of full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir. The protest, staged on the sixth anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370, also sought an explicit statement from Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the alleged use of force against students demonstrating at Jantar Mantar.
Senior opposition figures and MPs from several INDIA alliance partners, including National Conference, gathered with placards pressing the Centre to honour its long standing commitment on statehood. The gathering reflected a rare show of unity among opposition parties on an issue that has come to symbolise the broader debate over Jammu and Kashmir’s constitutional status since 2019, when the erstwhile state was reorganised into two union territories and stripped of special provisions under Article 370.
Beyond the statehood demand, the MPs raised sharp questions over the police response to the student protest at Jantar Mantar, calling on the Home Minister to make a formal statement in Parliament. National Conference MPs, representing the party that has consistently made statehood restoration central to its political platform since returning to power in Jammu and Kashmir, asserted that full statehood was essential to safeguarding the democratic rights and constitutional aspirations of the region’s people.
The protest unfolded against the backdrop of continuing political friction between the Centre and opposition parties over the pace and sincerity of the promised restoration of statehood, a commitment that has been reiterated in Parliament and before the Supreme Court in the years since 2019 but remains unfulfilled. For Jammu and Kashmir, the issue carries significance well beyond symbolism: full statehood would restore an elected government’s control over subjects such as law and order and land, powers currently vested with the Union Territory administration.
With the sixth anniversary of the abrogation serving as a natural flashpoint, opposition parties are expected to keep the statehood question alive through the ongoing session, using it alongside the Jantar Mantar episode to press the government on its accountability toward Jammu and Kashmir’s political future.
