Congress MP accuses Centre of reducing J&K govt to ‘name only’ by delaying statehood promise

Srinagar:Seven years after the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, Congress MP and party in-charge for J&K and Ladakh affairs, Syed Naseer Hussain, has accused the central government of reducing the elected government to a “government just in name” by repeatedly deferring the promised restoration of statehood.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Hussain alleged that the BJP-led Union Government has deliberately withheld statehood despite completing all other phases of its stated roadmap for the region’s political future.

“The government justified this rupture as transitional, laying out a four-stage roadmap: reorganisation, delimitation, elections, and restoration of statehood. That final, defining promise remains unredeemed,” Hussain said in his statement.

The Congress leader pointed to at least seven instances since 2019 where Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah personally reaffirmed the statehood commitment, yet failed to specify any timeline or legislative action.

Hussain detailed these assurances chronologically, beginning with the Home Minister’s statement in the Rajya Sabha on August 5, 2019, that statehood would be restored “at an appropriate time.” This was followed by similar assurances on February 13, 2021, in the Lok Sabha; December 11, 2023, when the Home Minister reiterated the phrase in the Rajya Sabha on the same day the Supreme Court directed restoration “at the earliest and as soon as possible”; May 20, 2024, when the Prime Minister said the restoration was “a solemn promise we have made and we stand by it”; September 8, 2024, at a Jammu rally; September 19, 2024, at a Srinagar rally; and most recently on March 29, 2025, at the Times Now Summit.

“Not once, across seven years and seven reaffirmations, has either leader named a date, a bill, or a parliamentary session for fulfilling this constitutional obligation,” Hussain asserted.

The Congress MP contrasted the indefinite delay in restoring statehood with the government’s adherence to fixed public deadlines for other components of its roadmap. Reorganisation was completed in October 2019, delimitation was completed in May 2022, and assembly elections were held from September to October 2024, with an elected government subsequently installed.

“What this government calls prudence is, in truth, a calculated exercise in institutional bad faith,” Hussain stated, adding that statehood has been “alone been consigned to indefinite suspension.”

Describing the current situation as a “democratic travesty,” Hussain argued that the elected government of Jammu and Kashmir now functions “shorn of the powers that are the constitutional entitlement of every other State.”

He noted that an unelected Lieutenant Governor, appointed by and answerable solely to New Delhi, continues to exercise “overriding executive authority over matters that rightfully belong to the people’s elected representatives.”

“This is not federalism; it is its calculated inversion, and it stands as an indictment of a Government that speaks the language of democracy while withholding its substance,” he said.

Hussain also referenced a letter sent on July 16, 2025, by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi to the Prime Minister, stating that restoration of full statehood “is not a concession but a legitimate constitutional and democratic demand of its people.”

“That letter, like every assurance before it, has met with silence,” Hussain said.

The Congress MP concluded with a series of demands, insisting that “full statehood of Jammu & Kashmir must be restored immediately and unconditionally” and that “the people of Jammu & Kashmir must be permitted to govern themselves through institutions vested with complete constitutional authority.”

“Seven years is long enough. The people of Jammu & Kashmir are not subjects to be ruled from Delhi; they are citizens of India, equal in constitutional standing, entitled to the same dignity of self-rule as every other State,” Hussain said.

“Statehood is not a favour to be dispensed at the Centre’s convenience. It is a right, long overdue, and it must be restored now, in full, without delay, without excuse, without betrayal,” the statement concluded.

IANS