The Congress will join Omar Abdullah and the National Conference’s protest seeking restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on Monday.
Tariq Hamid Karra, the J&K Congress President, said the party’scentral leadership will also join the protests on July 20. It is not confirmed if Rahul Gandhi will join the protest.
“National Conference may not have joined our protests for restoration of statehood, but we will surely join the protest they are holding at Jantar Mantar on July 20,” said Karra.
Karra said he is not sure at what level of Congress central leadership will join the protest.
He said that the National Conference has sent an invitation to Congress president Malikarjun Kharge and senior leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
General Secretary Ghulam Ahmad Mir said that Congress has opposed the “illegal” decision on J&K and demanded restoration of statehood from August 5, 2019, itself, when Jammu and Kashmir was stripped of its statehood and special status.
“For the last year, we have launched a campaign that our state is our right, and it’s still going on. We support the National Conference’s protest for restoration of statehood at Jantar Mantar,” said Mir.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has said he will lead a protest on July 20 to demand restoration of statehood for Jammu and Kashmir at Jantar Mantar.
The National Conference has invited the INDIA bloc and several other parties and leaders to join the protest.
Ahead of the proposed protest, the Congress has sought to raise the political stakes by demanding “Statehood Plus” for Jammu and Kashmir, with former Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee chief Saifudin Soz seeking internal autonomy for the erstwhile state.
Senior Congress leader Pawan Khera, who heads the party’s media and publicity department, said the party has consistently advocated for the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s “snatched rights”.
“Omar Abdullah’s protest is for statehood. The Congress has been talking about Statehood Plus for the past two years. Statehood Plus means not just statehood, but constitutional guarantees for land and job rights. Statehood alone is not enough,” Khera said.
National Conference president Farooq Abdullah has written a letter to all the leaders of the INDIA bloc and non-NDA parties to join the protest.
