Jammu, April 10 -- Will Jammu and Kashmir ever regain its statehood? More than five years have passed since the region was stripped of that status by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Government and the question continues to hang in the air-unanswered and unresolved. Despite periodic reassurances, mostly from high political platforms and often couched in vague language, the promise remains unfulfilled. For now, the fate of statehood seems tied not to the will of the majority of the people of J&K, but to the BJP's evolving calculus of political timing, national security and electoral expediency.

On August 5, 2019, the Union government abrogated concerned sections of Article 370 of the Constitution, ending the special status of J&K. The...