Politicians across the Opposition spectrum on Wednesday warned that unless Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh get statehood, the precedent to downgrade and split a state would haunt the rest of India.

A meeting titled “Statehood Now” at the Constitution Club of India on Wednesday witnessed political leaders from the erstwhile state as well as national leaders examining Article 370 in the perspective of more recent developments like Bihar’s special intensive revision (SIR). They stressed that the struggle for restoring statehood is part of a greater push in favour of federal democracy.

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah said: “I am a Muslim, will remain a Muslim and will die a Muslim. But I am an Indian Muslim, not a Pakistani or Chinese Muslim. When will you trust Indian Muslims? Today’s Biharis are being removed from the polling process…. Ambedkar’s Constitution gave the right to vote to every Indian. My father used to say that this isn’t a piece of paper, but the blood of martyrs who freed India.”

He added: “We are not here to bow. We are not here to beg. It is our right as Indians under the Constitution of India. What you have done is illegal. Restore our statehood.”

Congress MP Manish Tewari questioned the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the abrogation, even though “it held the procedure used to abrogate Article 370 to be wrong”.

Sajjad Kargili, a political activist from Ladakh, blamed the Opposition parties too for ignoring Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir’s push for statehood.

He said: “We ran a big agitation for statehood and the implementation of the sixth schedule in Ladakh. Rahul Gandhi also came to support us. But whenever the Congress does a media conference, they say give Ladakh a Legislative Assembly but keep it a Union Territory. When we don’t want a Union Territory legislature, why do you demand this? We are demanding statehood.”