The Assembly has spoken, and New Delhi now owes Jammu and Kashmir a clear timeline, not another assurance.
On Monday, the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly passed a resolution urging the Centre to restore full statehood immediately. Sixty of the 90 members backed it, and the BJP walked out. The resolution is not binding and restores nothing by itself. But it is the third such demand from this elected house and cabinet, and it deserves a serious answer.
Begin with the record. Statehood was taken away in August 2019. The Supreme Court then ordered elections without waiting for its restoration, on the Solicitor General’s assurance that it would return. The Court also said it should happen at the earliest. Elections were held in 2024 and a government was formed. Two years on, the Union Territory is still governed under a compromise that was meant to be temporary.
The Centre’s usual answer is that statehood will come at an “appropriate time,” tied to the security situation. This newspaper stands firmly for the integration of the country and against separatism in every form. We have no sympathy for those who take up the gun. But a security condition with no benchmark and no end date is not a policy. If restoration waits for the complete end of militancy, the decision passes to the very people the state is fighting. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah made this point in the House, and on this narrow question he is right.
That said, the government in Srinagar has its own homework. Statehood is not a magic key. Voters in Srinagar, Anantnag, Jammu and Kathua want jobs, working hospitals, steady power and clean administration. Ministers who spend more energy on resolutions than on delivery will find the public’s patience thin. Passing motions is easy. Fixing a district hospital is harder, and it is what people will remember. The same standard applies to the Lieutenant Governor’s administration, which holds real power and must answer for how it uses it.
The BJP’s walkout also deserves scrutiny. Calling a demand for statehood “anti-national” is careless. Asking the Union to keep a promise made in Parliament and repeated before the Supreme Court is constitutional politics, not sedition. Disagree on timing, argue over conditions, but do not brand an elected house’s request as disloyal. That language deepens the distance between Delhi and the Valley, and it also alienates Jammu, where many share the demand.
The way forward is simple. The Centre should publish a roadmap with stages and dates, spelling out what must happen and by when. The Assembly should back that roadmap with a record of governance that citizens can measure. Both sides should drop the habit of treating statehood as a prize to be won from an opponent.
Jammu and Kashmir has waited seven years. The people are owed a date, not another season of speeches.
