Farooq Abdullah invites 52 leaders to join protest for J&K statehood
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Srinagar: National Conference (NC) president and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah on Thursday invited 52 prominent political leaders, religious figures and civil society members from across the country to join the party's protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi demanding the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.
The National Conference said in a post on X that Abdullah had reached out to political parties across Jammu and Kashmir as well as leaders from across India, inviting them to participate in the peaceful and democratic protest on the opening day of the Monsoon Session of Parliament.
"This is not about one party, one region or one people. It is about defending India's federal spirit, upholding the Constitution, and demanding the long-overdue restoration of Jammu and Kashmir's statehood, as repeatedly promised," the party said.
Expressing hope that democratic voices across the country would support the campaign, the NC urged leaders to unite on what it described as a constitutional issue.
In his letter to the invitees, Abdullah said the continued delay in restoring Jammu and Kashmir's statehood was "not merely a delay" but "an affront to the democratic will of an entire people."
He argued that the issue extended beyond the people of Jammu and Kashmir, saying the downgrading of the erstwhile state into a Union Territory and its continued administrative subordination struck "at the very root of our federal polity."
Abdullah said the Constitution of India envisages a federal structure in which states are not merely administrative units of the Union but living expressions of the democratic will of their people.
"When that constitutional structure is compromised, when our State is stripped of its status and then made to wait indefinitely for what was promised as a temporary measure, all those who form a part of the democratic process of Jammu and Kashmir must stand at the very forefront of the struggle to reclaim our lost rights and dignity," he said.
The NC president said public representatives, irrespective of political affiliation or ideology, should not remain silent spectators to what he described as the erosion of the constitutional framework.
Inviting the leaders to join the protest, Abdullah said the demonstration would remain peaceful, democratic and fully constitutional.
"We are not asking for anything beyond what was promised. Our demands shall not transgress from those which have already been promised to us," he said.
Abdullah further described the restoration of statehood as a matter of protecting India's federal structure rather than advancing the interests of any single party, region or community.
"The cause of federalism is not the cause of one party, one people or one region. It is the cause of every citizen of India who believes that the genius of our constitutional order lies in the balance it strikes between unity and diversity," he said.
He added that supporting the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir's statehood meant defending the constitutional principle that no people should be governed without their consent and that commitments made in Parliament should be honoured.
Recalling his decades in public life, Abdullah said he had witnessed Jammu and Kashmir through periods of turmoil and hope, and stressed that its people had chosen the democratic path.
"The people of Jammu and Kashmir have chosen hope. We have chosen the ballot, the Constitution and the democratic process. We deserve to be treated with the same dignity and respect," he said.
Appealing for solidarity, Abdullah urged leaders to stand with the people of Jammu and Kashmir and send what he described as "an unambiguous message" that the promise of restoring statehood should no longer be delayed.
With IANS inputs