The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday (July 15, 2027) asked the Congress leadership to clarify whether the party endorsed the remarks by its veteran leader Saifuddin Soz advocating not only the restoration of Jammu & Kashmir’s Statehood and Article 370, but also “internal autonomy”.
In a statement to the media, Mr. Soz said: “...our real issue is internal autonomy, and the people of Jammu & Kashmir must fight for the restoration of Article 370...as a Muslim-majority State we decided to join India, a Hindu-majority country, and we took the right decision to remain with India, but it must be on our own terms. Internal autonomy must be restored.”
The remarks drew a sharp reaction from BJP MP and spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi, who called for a clarification from Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi, and Leader of the Opposition (Lok Sabha) Rahul Gandhi.
He said soon after Mr. Gandhi’s return from a “suspicious, undisclosed foreign tour”, a “highly condemnable anti-India statement” was made by Mr. Soz, who is a former Union Minister and former Jammu & Kashmir Congress president.
“Mr. Soz said the issue of Jammu & Kashmir is not merely about restoring Statehood or Article 370, but about ‘dakhili khudmukhtari (internal autonomy)’, that is ‘sovereignty’. He also linked the demand to Jammu & Kashmir’s Muslim-majority character, arguing that as it is a Muslim-majority region it should remain with India on its own terms -- an extremely dangerous premise,” said Mr. Trivedi.
Asking the Congress leadership if it was the party’s official line, he demanded that they should explicitly reject Mr. Soz’s statement and take action against him. “If the Congress party does not do so, it will be assumed that this statement, advocating ‘khudmukhtari’ (that is, sovereignty) for a State within India and thereby promoting the division of the country, represents its official stand,” he said.
“Our policy under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is ‘Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat (One India, Great India)’,” he added.
Published - July 16, 2026 10:27 am IST