Winter Session Day 1: In Rajya Sabha after 5 years, NC MPs raise J-K statehood demand

Amid growing criticism from allies, rivals and a section of its own leaders for pussyfooting on the issue of restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood since it stormed to power in the Union Territory over a year ago, the National Conference shrewdly marshalled its limited strength in Rajya Sabha to its advantage as Parliament’s winter session began on Monday (December 1).

With the UT’s representation in Parliament’s Upper House restored after a hiatus of nearly five years, the National Conference’s debutante MPs Chowdhry Mohammad Ramzan and Sajjad Ahmad Kichloo cleverly weaved in their fervent appeal for restoration of J&K’s statehood in their felicitation address for Rajya Sabha Chairman CP Radhakrishnan, who was also presiding over House proceedings for the first time.

Hitting the mark

Though Radhakrishnan repeatedly urged both NC parliamentarians to “stick to the subject (felicitation)” and raise the statehood issue on “some other occasion”, Ramzan and Kichloo persisted with their pleas, asserting that the elected government under Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had “no powers” as “all power and authority remained vested in the Lieutenant Governor (Manoj Sinha”.

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“If the government has no power, what is the use of that government…Our government has got nothing in its hands; all powers are confined with the Lieutenant Governor… J&K state is a border state. You know what has happened in J&K in previous decades. It (J&K) has to be strengthened. The people of J&K have given a massive mandate for the first time to the government and if there is no power with that government, what is its use then?” Ramzan said.

Later in the day, while making his felicitation speech for Radhakrishnan, Kichloo reiterated the same stance while reminding the House that both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah had assured Parliament that statehood, which was stripped from J&K after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, will be restored in time.

Omar elated

J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah, who has been fending off both veiled and direct attacks from people within his party, most prominently Srinagar MP Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi, as well as from his allies in the Congress and rivals from Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP for making no tangible efforts to intercede with the Centre on the statehood issue, was understandably elated. Abdullah, who visited Parliament on Monday morning, and his party posted snippets of Ramzan and Kichloo’s interventions on X, hailing these as proof of the NC’s commitment to the restoration of J&K’s statehood.

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“First day first show. Well done to @JKNC_ Leader of the party in the Rajya Sabha Ch Mohd Ramzan for using the first available opportunity to remind the union government of its promise about restoration of statehood to J&K (sic),” Abdullah posted, sharing parts of Ramzan’s speech. Praising Kichloo’s submissions, Abdullah wrote, “Please keep espousing the issues of J&K and fighting for our rights.”

Budgam effect

The NC’s decision to rake up the statehood issue at the first available chance in Rajya Sabha – J&K did not have any representative in the Upper House since February 2021 as the UT did not have a functioning Assembly to elect Rajya Sabha MPs – is ostensibly linked to the heat Abdullah has been facing lately, and more so after the party lost the assembly poll for Budgam, the constituency Abdullah had vacated while retaining Ganderbal and which is seen as the stronghold of the CM’s intra-party critic Ruhullah Mehdi.

While Mehdi has been repeatedly taking potshots at Abdullah for “betraying the cause”, the NC’s restive ally, the Congress, has also launched a “Ghar Ghar Dastak, Har Ghar Dastak” programme under its “Humari Riyasat Humara Haq” campaign to engage with J&K residents directly on the statehood issue.

Congress apathy

Last week, J&K Congress chief Tariq Hameed Karra, Legislative Party leader Ghulam Ahmed Mir, and former PCC chief Vikar Rasool Wani met the party’s organisational general secretary KC Venugopal along with the party’s J&K desk in-charge Syed Naseer Hussain and his deputies Divya Maderna and Pargat Singh to discuss the Congress’s future roadmap in the UT. The meeting came at a time when the NC-Congress ties have been increasingly strained, particularly since Abdullah’s party denied his ally a chance to get a Congress nominee elected to Rajya Sabha from J&K.

Also read: Omar Abdullah rules out any tie-up with BJP for J-K statehood restoration

Sources privy to the discussions with Venugopal told The Federal that the J&K leaders implored the party high command to “raise the statehood issue forcefully” during Parliament’s winter session. It may be recalled that ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament, which concluded in August, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Lok Sabha’s Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi had also written a joint letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging for J&K’s statehood to be restored without delay. The NC had, at the time, welcomed the Congress initiative but also remarked sarcastically that its ally was “finally” raising an important issue of J&K.

With Ramzan and Kichloo stealing a march on their Congress colleagues over the statehood issue on the first day of the winter session, it remains to be seen if the Congress, currently pre-occupied with its demand for a discussion in Parliament on the SIR, will redouble its efforts on the J&K question.