Srinagar: On Monday, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti condemned the Centre’s decision to nominate five members to the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly after elections, calling it a “blatant subversion of democratic principles.”
She was reacting to a report by the English daily The Hindu, which stated that the Ministry of Home Affairs informed the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court that the lieutenant governor can nominate five MLAs to the Assembly without the aid and advice of the elected government.
Mufti said in a post on X, “The Government of India’s decision to nominate five MLAs in J&K after elections undermines democratic values. Nowhere else in the country does the Centre select legislators to override the public mandate. In India’s only Muslim-majority region, long troubled by conflict, this step feels more like control than governance.”
She added, “Following the illegal bifurcation of the state, skewed delimitation, and discriminatory seat reservations, this nomination is another severe blow to democracy in J&K. Representation must come through the people’s vote, not central government decree.”
Mufti urged, “This cannot become a standard practice. I hope the @OmarAbdullah government stands up to challenge this undemocratic precedent, as silence now would amount to complicity later.”
