Mubashir Alam Wani
Srinagar, Feb 15: Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) President Tariq Karra on Saturday said that the people of Jammu and Kashmir continue to seek the restoration of their pre-2019 status, asserting that even those who initially celebrated the abrogation of Article 370 have now realised that Jammu has suffered the most.
Speaking to the media in Poonch, Karra highlighted that the Supreme Court’s verdict on Article 370 did not meet people’s expectations but that the fight for statehood remains crucial.
He highlighted the Congress party’s commitment to the cause, stressing that statehood was a constitutional and assured demand and that the party will continue to pursue it through legal and political means.
JKPCC President said their party stands committed to the restoration of J&K’s statehood, highlighting that it was not a matter of political opportunity but a fight for the region’s lost identity.
Karra vowed to take the campaign—’Hamari Riyasat, Hamara Haq’ (Our State, Our Right) movement—to every district of Jammu and Kashmir to get back the lost identity and status. “This is about the status and rights of the people of J&K, which were taken away. The central government made promises, and we are here to remind them of their commitments,” he said.
Karra highlighted that Jammu and Kashmir was once an independent entity before its accession to India, meticulously unified by the Dogra rulers. “Our sub-regional identity was always distinct. The BJP has misled people by claiming that J&K was liberated only in 2014 after they came to power,” he said.
He also accused the BJP of misleading the nation about the realities of J&K’s integration. “The Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb they tried to disrupt is now being understood across the country,” he added.
The Congress, Karra said, will persist in its legal and political efforts for the restoration of statehood, stressing that their demand is well within constitutional limits and has been assured by the central government itself.
