Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is not letting the buzz over the restoration of Statehood to Jammu and Kashmir die down.
On Wednesday, Omar said he has sought support from several political parties for introducing a bill to restore statehood to the erstwhile princely State during the ongoing Monsoon Session.
“I have written a letter to all those parties who have a good number of MPs in Parliament and requested them to help on the promise made to Jammu and Kashmir on statehood and raise the issue in Parliament so that a bill is brought in this session itself and Jammu and Kashmir gets its statehood back,” Abdullah told reporters in Srinagar.
Abdullah wrote a letter to the presidents of 42 political parties, including Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, urging them to press the Centre to grant statehood to Jammu and Kashmir, saying it must not be viewed as a concession, but as an essential course correction.
In his letter dated July 29, 2025, Omar wrote that downgrading a State to a union territory sets a “profound and unsettling” precedent and is a “constitutional red line” that “must never be crossed”. “The act of reducing Jammu and Kashmir from a State to a union territory in 2019 and the prolonged delay in restoring its status as a full State… has profound implications for the future of Indian polity,” the two-page letter stated.
The Chief Minister said the reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir into a union territory in August 2019 was presented as a “temporary and transitional measure” and cited repeated public assurances from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, including a promise made in Kashmir earlier this year that he called “Modi ka Wada”. Abdullah also cited the stand of the Centre before the Supreme Court, reaffirming its commitment to restore statehood at the earliest. However, he said, the “interpretation of terms like ‘at the earliest’ or ‘as soon as possible’ cannot stretch into years or decades”.
“The people of Jammu and Kashmir have already waited long enough — statehood must be restored now.” He said the issue was not of an individual or a party, or even a Government, “it is about the promise made to the people of J&K”. “More than nine months have passed and yet there is no clarity, timeline, or visible progress toward fulfilling that solemn assurance,” Abdullah lamented.
On the Supreme Court likely to hear a plea for the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood on August 8, Abdullah said the restoration should come through the court if the Government does not do it.
“It is a good thing and I hope the Supreme Court keeps in mind that when they gave a judgement on the August 5 case (in December 2023), they had said that the statehood should be restored as soon as possible.
“Now, many years have passed, but we have not got it yet,” he said. He said that had the SC not set a deadline for conducting Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, “perhaps I would not have been talking to you as the CM today”.
“The elections were held because the SC had set a deadline and the elections were held in that time frame. We want that much time has passed now, and if it (restoration of statehood) does not come through the Government, then it should come through the court,” he said. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Abdullah expressed hope that after the incident-free and successful Amarnath Yatra, Jammu and Kashmir will witness an increase in tourist footfall.
“The numbers are increasing. The situation has not remained as it was after the April 22 (Pahalgam) attack. We also had a successful yatra, with approximately 4 lakh yatris undertaking the yatra through Baltal and Pahalgam, and the situation remained stable throughout the yatra.
“We now hope that the tourists will start coming from different corners of the country and benefit from the hospitality of the people of J&K,” he said.