Mehbooba slams Centre over LG,s power to nominate MLAs in J&K, calls move subversion of democracy
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti today slammed the Centre’s decision allowing the Lieutenant Governor to nominate five members to the Union Territory’s Legislative Assembly, calling it a “blatant subversion of democratic principles”.
She was responding to reports that the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has told the Jammu and Kashmir High Court that the Lieutenant Governor of the Union Territory has the authority to nominate five members to the Legislative Assembly without requiring the “aid and advice” of the elected government.
“GOIs decision to nominate 5 MLAs in J&K after holding elections is a blatant subversion of democratic principles. Nowhere else in the country does the Centre handpick legislators to override the public mandate. In India’s only Muslim-majority region, long marred by conflict, this move feels less like governance and more like control,” Mehbooba said in a post on X.
She termed the move “yet another body blow to the idea of democracy in J&K”
“Following the illegal bifurcation of the state, skewed delimitation and discriminatory seat reservations this nomination is yet another body blow to the idea of democracy in J&K,” she added.
Mehbooba said representation must be earned through the people’s vote not granted by central decree.
“This cannot be allowed to become the norm,” PDP chief said while hoping that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah government “rises to the occasion by challenging this undemocratic precedent because silence now would be complicity later.”
As per the J&K Reorganisation Act 2019, the L-G can nominate five members to the Assembly, including two women, two from migrant KPs, one of whom has to be a woman, and a member from displaced persons from PoK. This powers of LG in nominating five members was challenged in the High Court by former Member of Legislative Council (MLC) and Congress leader Ravinder Sharma
