SRINAGAR, India — The regional legislature of Indian-controlled Kashmir on Wednesday passed a resolution demanding the federal government restore the disputed region’s semi-autonomy, which was revoked in 2019 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration.

Parliament passed the non-binding resolution by majority vote in response to noisy scenes at the house.

“This assembly calls on the Government of India to initiate dialogue with the elected representatives of the people of Jammu and Kashmir for the restoration of special status,” the resolution said.

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, which has 29 members in the 90-seat parliament, rejected the decision. This requires the approval of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, New Delhi’s top administrator appointed to Kashmir.

The National Conference party, which sponsored the resolution, came to power last month in the region’s first vote in a decade and the first since Modi’s Hindu nationalist government stripped its semi-autonomy. The federal government also downgraded the erstwhile state and divided it into two centrally administered union territories, Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir.

This move, which caused great repercussions in India and among Modi supporters, was mostly opposed in Kashmir, including the National Conference, on the grounds that it was an attack on its identity and autonomy. Many fear this will pave the way for demographic changes in the region, where civil liberties and media freedoms have been curtailed ever since.

The territory remains a “union territory” directly controlled by the federal government, with the Parliament of India as the main legislature.

India and Pakistan administer part of Kashmir, but both claim the entire region. The nuclear-armed rivals have fought two of three wars over the region since they won independence from British colonial rule in 1947.

Militants in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir have been fighting against New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of unifying the region under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.

India insists Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the accusation and many Kashmiris see it as a legitimate fight for freedom. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces were killed in the conflict.

Modi and his powerful home minister Amit Shah have repeatedly stated that the region’s statehood will be restored after the election, without specifying a timeline. But they have vowed to block any move aimed at rolling back the 2019 changes.