Kashmir Impulse Desk

Srinagar, July 7

Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary on Tuesday said the ruling National Conference and its allies would hold a protest in New Delhi later this month to press the federal government to restore statehood to the Union Territory.

Speaking to reporters during a visit to Nowshera in Rajouri district, Choudhary said the demonstration would take place at Jantar Mantar on July 20 and would be attended by legislators from the National Conference and its alliance partners.

He said the restoration of statehood remained a “basic and genuine demand” of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and urged the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to honour what he described as its commitment on the issue.

“The BJP had promised restoration of statehood after the elections. It should now fulfil that promise,” Choudhary said.

He said the protest would coincide with the Monsoon Session of Parliament and form part of the National Conference’s broader political campaign seeking restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s pre-2019 constitutional status as a state.

J&K has remained without statehood since August 2019, when the federal government revoked the region’s special constitutional status and reorganised the former state into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

The central government has repeatedly maintained that statehood would be restored at an appropriate stage but has not announced a timeframe.

The National Conference has made restoration of statehood one of its principal political demands since assuming office and has passed a cabinet resolution on the issue, which was forwarded to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.