New Delhi: In the upcoming monsoon session of parliament the government ought to introduce Bills to grant statehood to Jammu and Kashmir and place Ladakh in the constitution’s sixth schedule, parliament’s leaders of opposition wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday (July 16).Rajya Sabha leader of opposition Mallikarjun Kharge and his Lok Sabha counterpart Rahul Gandhi said that in the five years since Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated and turned into a Union territory, its people have “consistently called for the restoration of full statehood” in a demand that is “legitimate and firmly grounded in their constitutional and democratic rights”.Pointing out that the prime minister himself has more than once assured the people of Jammu and Kashmir that the BJP-led Union government will restore statehood, the Congress leaders also said that the erstwhile state’s conversion to a Union territory is “without precedent in independent India”.Modi’s government has also officially committed to restoring Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood, they said, urging New Delhi to introduce legislation that would give “full statehood” to the territory.The government as well as Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah have promised to make Jammu and Kashmir a state once again in the five years since it was made a Union territory and its special autonomous status revoked with the reading down of Article 370 in August 2019.Chief minister Omar Abdullah, who was elected to his post in the first assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir in ten years and whose National Conference is a co-constituent of the opposition INDIA bloc along with the Congress, thanked Kharge and Gandhi for their letter.“It is a very good thing. We have been waiting for the day when the opposition’s voice will ring loud in parliament and in Delhi. I am grateful to Kharge ji and Rahul Gandhi ji for raising the issue of Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood with the Union government,” Abdullah told reporters on Wednesday.He added: “We are not asking for something that hasn’t been promised to us. We are repeatedly told in parliament, outside it, in the Supreme Court and in public functions that Jammu and Kashmir will be given statehood at the appropriate time.” The Supreme Court too directed the Union government to grant statehood ‘as soon as possible’ and ‘at the earliest’ but “we have said that ‘as soon as possible’ has long passed.”In their letter to Modi, Kharge and Gandhi also said that bringing Ladakh under the sixth schedule of the constitution “would be a significant step towards addressing the cultural, developmental and political aspirations” of its people while “safeguarding their rights, land and identity”.Civil society in the predominantly tribal Ladakh has demanded that the territory be included under the sixth schedule, which would result in the creation of autonomous district councils that would give its tribal population a bigger say in framing laws on land, public health and agriculture.Inclusion in the sixth schedule has been one of the four demands of the Leh Apex Body and the Kargil Democratic Alliance, who are in talks with the Union home ministry, which has not given its nod on the matter.Statehood for Ladakh, two parliamentary seats for it and a dedicated public service commission are the groups’ other demands.The monsoon session of parliament is scheduled to begin next Monday (July 21).