Overview
- J&K Congress leaders, including Tariq Hameed Karra and G. A. Mir, led over 250 activists from Jammu and Kashmir to Delhi’s Jantar Mantar to gherao Parliament as the Monsoon session opened on July 22.
- The protest caps the sequential ‘Chalo Srinagar’, ‘Chalo Jammu’ and ‘Chalo Delhi’ marches designed to escalate pressure on the Centre for full statehood restoration.
- Jammu and Kashmir Police under the Lieutenant Governor’s administration erected barricades, sealed party offices and detained dozens of senior Congress figures in Srinagar and Jammu.
- The INDIA bloc unanimously backed a July 13 letter from Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, securing endorsements from all 233 alliance MPs to press for a statehood bill.
- The agitation invokes Prime Minister Modi’s floor assurances and a December 2023 Supreme Court order directing early restoration of statehood after the abrogation of Article 370.