Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday demanded the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood and resumption of free and fair elections in the Union Territory.

Gandhi is on a two-day visit to Srinagar – his first since the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status in August 2019, NDTV reported. The Centre had split the state into two Union territories – Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. Several political leaders were detained and curfews and internet blockades were imposed in the region.

While addressing Congress workers in Srinagar on Friday, Gandhi spoke about his connection to the Union Territory. “My family lives in Delhi, before Delhi my family lived in Allahabad and before Allahabad my family lived here [Jammu and Kashmir],” Gandhi said. “That’s why I can say that Kashmiriyat [Kashmiri ethos] is also within me.”

Gandhi alleged that not just Jammu and Kashmir, but the entire country and all the institutions, including the judiciary and Parliament, were “under attack”.

The Congress leader claimed that the Opposition was not allowed to talk about Jammu and Kashmir, the Pegasus surveillance controversy and the Rafale deal in Parliament.

Gandhi said even the media was intimidated by those in power. “They [journalists] do not write the truth that they should,” the Congress leader said. “They are suppressed and threatened.”

“They do not fulfill the responsibility of the press,” Gandhi continued. “So this is an attack on the whole country. On Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu and Bengal. The concept of India, our democratic structure, our Constitution, are being attacked.”

Gandhi said that the Congress will fight against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s divisive ideology. “My party is different from the other because we advocate the politics of love and dignity,” he said, according to The Hindu. “We will defeat the ideology of hatred one day.”

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In June, the Centre had reached out to Kashmiri political leaders for the first time since the controversial move to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. Modi held a three-hour-long meeting with them.

After the meeting, Modi had said that Indian democracy’s biggest strength was the ability to sit across a table and exchange views.

Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that the Centre was committed to ensuring the all-round development of Jammu and Kashmir. He added that meeting between the Centre and Kashmiri leaders was encouraging.

However, the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration, a coalition of Kashmiri political parties, said the meeting was disappointing.

The coalition said that the Centre did not take any substantial confidence-building measures such as releasing political prisoners from jails and ending the “atmosphere of suppression that has choked J&K since 2019”.

The Gupkar Alliance demanded that elections should be held in Jammu and Kashmir only after its statehood was restored. The alliance said that the BJP had committed on the floor of the Parliament that it will restore statehood, and asked the saffron party to keep its word.