Indian National Congress Demands Full Statehood for Jammu and Kashmir

The Indian National Congress demanded the immediate and unconditional restoration of full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday, marking seven years since the revocation of Article 370. The party argues that the current arrangement violates federal constitutional principles and denies the region the democratic self-governance available to other Indian states.

Syed Naseer Hussain, AICC general secretary in-charge of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, stated that the Union government has failed to honor repeated assurances from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Hussain asserted that with the completion of the delimitation exercise and the holding of Assembly elections, there is no longer any justification for the Lieutenant Governor to exercise overriding authority.

Hussain alleged that the government has used the phrase 'appropriate time' as a strategy of deferral to indefinitely delay the final step of its own four-stage roadmap. To pressure the central government, opposition MPs staged a march in Parliament demanding that the elected government in Jammu and Kashmir be granted full constitutional authority.