As the Monsoon Session of Parliament approaches, the Congress party has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to introduce a bill that would restore full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi wrote a joint letter to the PM, asking him to fulfill the promise of restoring J&K’s statehood, which was revoked on August 5, 2019. On that day, the region’s special status was removed, and the former state was split into two Union Territories — Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.

In their letter, they emphasized that people in Jammu and Kashmir have been demanding full statehood for the past five years. They called this demand “legitimate” and based on constitutional and democratic rights. They pointed out that while Union Territories have been upgraded to states before, this is the first time in independent India that a state was downgraded to a Union Territory.

They also reminded the PM of his earlier commitments. In an interview in Bhubaneswar on May 19, 2024, he said, “The restoration of statehood is a solemn promise we have made and we stand by it.” The PM had also repeated this promise during a rally in Srinagar on September 19, 2024. Moreover, the central government had given similar assurances to the Supreme Court in the Article 370 case, saying statehood would be restored “as soon as possible.”

Apart from this, Congress leaders also demanded special constitutional protections for Ladakh. They asked the government to bring legislation that would include Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. This would help protect the culture, identity, land, and political rights of the people of Ladakh.