JAMMU/SRINAGAR, SEPT 30: The BJP on Wednesday took its opposition to the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly’s statehood resolution to the streets, holding protests across districts against the National Conference-led government and accusing it of mixing the demand for restoration of statehood with earlier resolutions on autonomy and special status.
The protests followed the Assembly’s passage of a resolution calling for the immediate and urgent restoration of full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir.
The resolution specifically states that it is in addition to resolutions passed by the House in 2000 on autonomy and in 2024 on restoration of special status, triggering strong objections from the BJP.
The BJP maintained that it supports restoration of statehood but opposes any attempt to link the issue with the pre-1953 constitutional position, autonomy or the pre-2019 special-status arrangement.
Leader of Opposition Sunil Sharma has said that references to the earlier resolutions were the principal sticking points for the party, while maintaining that the Centre remains committed to restoration of statehood.
In Jammu, hundreds of BJP workers led by District President Adv. Rajesh Gupta assembled at Kachi Chawni Chowk, where they raised slogans against the NC government and burnt an effigy. Lok Sabha MP Jugal Kishore Sharma, former MLC Adv. Vibodh Gupta, Treasurer Prabhat Singh, Media Incharge Dr. Pardeep Mahotra, District Prabhari Brijeshwar Rana, spokesperson Zorawar Singh and other senior leaders participated in the protest.
Jugal Kishore Sharma said the BJP would support restoration of statehood but would oppose any attempt to combine it with the erstwhile constitutional arrangement.
He accused the NC government of shifting attention towards contentious political issues and called for greater focus on employment, development, electricity, water supply and other issues affecting the public.
The BJP also questioned the inclusion of the 2000 and 2024 resolutions in the latest statehood resolution.
Advocate Vibodh Gupta sought an explanation from the NC government over what he described as the linking of separate constitutional issues, while Rajesh Gupta said the Jammu protest reflected opposition to the language and references contained in the Assembly resolution.
The controversy has its roots in the political history of the two earlier resolutions. The June 2000 autonomy resolution, passed during Farooq Abdullah’s government, sought restoration of greater autonomy as it existed before August 9, 1953. The November 2024 resolution sought restoration of special status and constitutional guarantees. Both were expressly referenced in the latest statehood resolution.
The BJP had strongly protested the statehood resolution inside the Assembly before staging a walkout. BJP legislators objected particularly to the reference to the 2000 autonomy resolution, while Chief Minister Omar Abdullah maintained that the new resolution neither replaced nor subsumed the earlier resolutions and was aimed at securing restoration of full statehood.
The issue has since spilled beyond the Assembly, with BJP units organising demonstrations in Jammu Border, Jammu North, Kathua, Samba, Basohli, Ramban and Kishtwar, besides protests in several Kashmir districts including Srinagar, Shopian, Anantnag, Baramulla and Ganderbal.
In Samba, BJP Vice-President Rashpaul Verma, Secretary Arun Sharma, former DDC Chairperson Keshav Dutt Sharma and other leaders participated in the demonstration.
The BJP has said its opposition is specifically directed at what it sees as an attempt to attach the autonomy and special-status agenda to the statehood demand.
The NC Government, meanwhile, has maintained that the resolution is fundamentally a call for restoration of full statehood, with the references to earlier resolutions providing the political context for the demand.
The confrontation has added another sharp political fault line between the ruling NC and BJP, with the Assembly resolution now becoming the centre of a wider debate over statehood, constitutional status and the political direction of Jammu and Kashmir.
