INDIA bloc will demand full statehood for J&K in Monsoon Session: Venugopal
Congress general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal, in a post on X, said, “Did PM Modi lie on the floor of Parliament about granting statehood for J&K? If not, why has J&K Police arrested JKPCC President Tariq Hameed Karra ji & other Congress leaders? Why did they seal the PCC Office in Srinagar yesterday and stop our party workers from protesting peacefully for statehood?”
He added, “In the upcoming Parliament session, INDI alliance will be demanding that full statehood be restored in J&K immediately. This farce cannot go on any longer.”
On Saturday, the J&K administration foiled the Congress party’s plan to stage a protest demanding the restoration of statehood.
The development came after Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge sent a joint letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking the restoration of statehood to J&K. The letter was endorsed by all 233 MPs of the INDIA bloc.
J&K PCC chief Tariq Hameed Karra stated on X that police detained party leaders at various entry points into Srinagar city on Saturday to prevent them from joining the protesters.
Karra said the police halted their “peaceful march” and closed the main gate of the party office from outside while they were demanding the restoration of statehood, “a right unjustly taken from us.”
“We will not be silenced. Our resolve is stronger than ever, and no force can stop the people of Jammu and Kashmir from reclaiming what is rightfully ours,” Karra said. The Congress leader termed the police’s “authoritarian mishandling” of party MLAs a “shameful attack” on democracy.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, scores of Congress activists were detained by police in Jammu during their march for statehood. The protesters were on their way to Raj Bhawan to submit a memorandum to Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha but were stopped by police barricades.
J & K