Mehbooba Rebukes Centre for ‘Undemocratic’ MLA Picks in J&K
Mehbooba Mufti slams Centre’s plan to nominate MLAs in J&K as a direct attack on democracy.
In a sharp rebuke to the central government, People's Democratic Party (PDP) president and former Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti slammed the reported move to allow the Centre to nominate five members to the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly after elections. Calling it a “blatant subversion of democratic principles,” Mufti alleged that this unprecedented step undermines the public mandate and deepens the Centre’s control over India's only Muslim-majority region.
Mufti was reacting to a report by The Hindu, which revealed that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) told the J&K and Ladakh High Court that the Lieutenant Governor (LG) has the authority to nominate MLAs to the assembly without the elected government's aid or advice.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Mufti wrote, “Nowhere else in the country does the Centre handpick legislators to override the public mandate... this move feels less like governance and more like control.”
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She further criticized the move as another blow to democracy in the region, especially after the abrogation of Article 370, the bifurcation of the state, skewed delimitation, and seat reservations that she described as discriminatory.
Mufti called on the Opposition, especially the National Conference led by Omar Abdullah, to challenge what she termed an “undemocratic precedent,” warning that silence now would amount to complicity in the future.
