The Congress on Wednesday demanded the immediate and unconditional restoration of full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir, asserting that the Union Territory's elected government continues to function without full constitutional powers seven years after the abrogation of Article 370.
In a statement marking seven years since the Centre revoked Jammu and Kashmir's special status and bifurcated the erstwhile state into two Union Territories, Congress general secretary in-charge of Jammu and Kashmir Syed Naseer Hussain said the BJP-led government had failed to fulfil its repeated promise of restoring statehood.
"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 Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah had reaffirmed the commitment to restore statehood at least seven times since 2019, including in Parliament, before the Supreme Court and during election campaigns in Jammu and Kashmir.
"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," he said.
While reorganisation, delimitation and Assembly elections had been completed, statehood alone had been indefinitely delayed, Hussain alleged.
"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," he said.
The Congress leader also alleged that the elected government in Jammu and Kashmir remained without effective constitutional authority, with the Lieutenant Governor exercising overriding executive powers.
"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 Congress' demand came as opposition MPs staged a march in Parliament on Wednesday seeking the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.
"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.
"Statehood … must be restored now, in full, without delay, without excuse, without betrayal," Hussain said.
(With inputs from PTI)