NEW DELHI: The Congress has taken a stand in Jammu and Kashmir that it will not join the cabinet until statehood is restored there, Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh said on Wednesday.The party also vowed to intensify its movement demanding restoration of statehood in Jammu and Kashmir.The Congress claimed that even though elections have taken place in Jammu and Kashmir, the elected government has no power, with the lieutenant governor given all kinds of authority.Singh said there is a coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir but the Congress has decided not to join the cabinet until statehood is restored there.“Today, the situation is so bad that the chief minister in Jammu and Kashmir is stopped by police and no government file can move forward without the approval of the LG. In such a scenario, it is very important for Jammu and Kashmir to be granted statehood to fulfil the promises made to the public,” Singh said at a press conference here, along with Congress legislature party leader Ghulam Ahmad Mir and AICC general secretary in-charge of Jammu and Kashmir Naseer Hussain.Mir said Prime Minister Narendra Modi called a meeting of the representatives of all political parties in Jammu and Kashmir in June 2021 and suggested delimitation, election and then restoration of statehood — in that order.He said although most of the political representatives had demanded the restoration of statehood before the assembly polls in the Union territory, PM Modi had insisted on delimitation, followed by the election and then statehood.While the delimitation exercise has been completed, the election has been held and an elected government is in place for 11 months now, the BJP-led Centre is yet to fulfil its promise of restoring statehood, Mir said.He said since day one — August 5, 2019 — the Congress has maintained that statehood must be restored in Jammu and Kashmir.Besides, he said, while wrapping up his 4,000-km Bharat Jodo Yatra in Srinagar, Rahul Gandhi, along with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, had also committed that the party will ensure the restoration of statehood.Hussain pointed out that it is unprecedented that the powers of elected representatives are with unelected people like the LG.He said once the powers are restored to the elected government, only then will the people of Jammu and Kashmir come to know what sort of “scams” took place during the regime of unelected people. The Centre abrogated the provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution, which had given special powers to Jammu and Kashmir, on August 5, 2019 and bifurcated the erstwhile state into Union territories.
