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Statehood credit war: Cong to join NC protest, but refuses to play second fiddle

Early Times Report

Jammu, July 17: Even as the Jammu and Kashmir Congress on Friday announced that it will join the ruling National Conference's (NC) much-publicised protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on July 20 demanding the restoration of statehood, the party made it clear that it is not willing to let its coalition partner claim ownership of the movement.
In a strong political message aimed at the National Conference, Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) president Tariq Hameed Karra asserted that the Congress has been leading the struggle for the restoration of full statehood ever since the Omar Abdullah-led government assumed office on October 16, 2024.
Amid an apparent battle between the coalition partners for political credit over the statehood campaign, Karra reminded the National Conference that the Congress had consciously chosen to remain on the streets instead of joining the government.
"We preferred to continue our struggle for full statehood rather than become part of the Cabinet," Karra said, claiming that the Congress has consistently carried the campaign to every corner of Jammu and Kashmir through protests, dharnas, chain hunger strikes and programmes such as Srinagar Chalo, Jammu Chalo and Delhi Chalo.
He said the Congress had also organised a successful protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi last year, attended by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and other senior party leaders.
Karra further pointed out that Kharge and Rahul Gandhi had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 16, 2025, reminding the Centre of its commitment to restore statehood and urging the government to fulfil its promise at the earliest.
While announcing that the Congress would participate in the National Conference's July 20 protest in Delhi, Karra remarked that his party welcomed the NC's decision to join the statehood campaign "belatedly."
"We are happy that the National Conference has finally joined this movement and even adopted our slogan, Hamari Riyasat, Hamara Haq. Our fight is for the larger cause of restoring statehood to the 1.40 crore people of Jammu and Kashmir. Therefore, we will join their protest in Delhi, even though the National Conference neither participated in our agitation last year nor extended support to it," he said.
The Congress leader also underlined that his party would continue to run its own agitation independently.
To underline its separate identity in the campaign, the Congress has advanced its scheduled Jammu protest to July 19, a day before the NC's Delhi demonstration. The party will organise a massive sit-in at Maharaja Hari Singh Park from 10.30 am, followed by a protest march to the Lieutenant Governor's residence at Panjtirthi, where a memorandum addressed to the President of India will be submitted through the Lieutenant Governor's office.
Senior Congress leaders, legislators, former ministers, former legislators, district presidents, frontal organisation leaders, block presidents and party workers from both the Jammu and Kashmir regions are expected to participate.
Karra also announced that if the Centre continues to delay the restoration of statehood, the Congress will launch a long march from Lakhanpur to Lolab.
"I have already discussed this proposal with Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi. The details are being finalised and will be announced shortly," he said.
The Congress's decision to join the National Conference's protest while simultaneously asserting its own leadership of the statehood movement reflects the growing competition between the two alliance partners to claim political ownership of one of Jammu and Kashmir's most significant public issues.