August 5, 2026, shall mark the seventh anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution and the downgrading of Jammu and Kashmir to Union territory status. In anticipation of the anniversary, the ruling party in J&K, the National Conference, organised a protest in New Delhi on July 20 to press for the restoration of statehood.The National Conference’s initiative was not supported by the Peoples Democratic Party (which is influential in the Valley), and got only lukewarm support from other members of the INDIA bloc. Besides, it was ill-timed, since July 20 was the day of the students’ march on Parliament organised by the Cockroach Janta Party. The news cycle was therefore dominated by the massive numbers that showed up for the Cockroach Janta Party march, and its savage suppression by the Delhi Police.Contrary to the hopes of the National Conference, its protest of July 20 did not bring the issue of statehood for Jammu and Kashmir back into the public conversation. Nonetheless, it remains a vital and unresolved question. A full seven years after the abrogation of Article 370, Jammu and Kashmir remains a mere Union territory, to the shock and dismay not just of those who live there but of democratically-minded Indians everywhere.In April 2024, the independent website, Kashmir Times, published a timeline of promises made to restore statehood by the Union government which had remained unfulfilled. In October 2019, a mere two months after the abrupt downgrading of Jammu and Kashmir to Union territory status, the home minister, Amit Shah, told a group of police officers that statehood would be restored once “normalcy” returned. In December of the same year, Ram Madhav, then the national general-secretary of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, said statehood would be restored “soon”.“We have come here to demand our rights, but we are not allowed to protest peacefully.Democracy is being strangled.”- J&K CM Omar Abdullah at Jantar Mantar protest to demand statehood pic.twitter.com/vySUEFD4Tz— News Arena India (@NewsArenaIndia) July 20, 2026