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4 min readSrinagarJul 21, 2026 09:37 PM IST
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah walks on a road near Jantar Mantar during his protest demanding the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir's statehood, in New Delhi. (ANI Photo)
A day after he led a protest in the national capital seeking restoration of statehood for Jammu and Kashmir, Chief Minister and National Conference vice-president Omar Abdullah emphasised that the demand for statehood is foundational to restore constitutional guarantees to J&K.
“What does (Article) 370 or 371 mean without statehood? A union territory has no powers. There is no state list or a concurrent list and that is the whole fight. Any special status that is accorded to J&K – whether it is 370 or something else – it will come down to how the Centre and state share power and the Centre does not share power with a UT,” the chief minister said on Tuesday in reference to criticism that the NC is restricting its protest to statehood and not discussing the restoration of constitutional guarantees under Article 370.
Underscoring that the party was done waiting for statehood, the NC took a decision in June to take its demand to New Delhi on the first day of the monsoon session of Parliament. The protest, however, was eclipsed by the Cockroach Janta Party’s march from Jantar Mantar to Parliament, and many INDIA alliance partners also gave it a miss.
Party president Farooq Abdullah led party members through the streets but they could not reach Central Delhi. “The police had offered us Ramlila Maidan as an alternate venue but we did not accept that,” Omar said.
The NC had invited several national leaders and parties, including Congress Parliamentary Party leader Sonia Gandhi to join their demand for statehood, but only Congress leaders who are alliance partners in the J&K government were seen walking along the NC legislators in the capital.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Omar said that while a lot of them had committed to joining the protest, the leaders were unable to reach the venue of the protest. “A few of them spoke to me, they just weren’t able to reach there. We had a commitment from TMC, NCP, DMK, SP among others. Within the INDIA bloc, we were sure they would join. But the situation (in Delhi) was just chaotic, I don’t blame them,” Omar said.
Omar asserted that the protest in Delhi is just the beginning and a reminder to the central government of its word both in Parliament as well as to the Supreme Court. “They have to tell us what the ‘uchit samay’ (appropriate time) for restoration of statehood is,” he said, adding that Farooq Abdullah will take a call on the organisational efforts towards escalating this demand.
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He also responded to criticism from the opposition in J&K for not raising the issue of restoration of Article 370. “We invited all political parties from J&K; this concerns all of us. Not only did they refuse to join, they also ridiculed our efforts. When have we not spoken about J&K’s special status? We can make attempts at unity but we can’t force it,” Omar said.
He said the issue of Article 370 cannot be clubbed with statehood because “the Centre will use 370 as the excuse to not give us statehood. The BJP government will not restore (Article) 370.”
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