J-K Police Bill no better than AFSPA: PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti

"J-K has the dubious distinction of having been reduced to a police state outside the democratic system of the country but the proposed Bill would actually convert it to a lawless state," Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) President Mehbooba Mufti said. "It is an attempt to institutionalize the dreaded Ikhwan culture in the state. The police in the state definitely is in need of drastic reforms but many provisions in this bill are undemocratic and anti people". Mufti said that her party will oppose the passage of this Bill in "its present form".

Equating the draft Bill with the AFSPA, Mufti said on one hand the government is making noises on scrapping the AFSPA and on the other it is proposing to provide similar immunity and unbridled powers to its own police and taking them out of all civilian control and guidance. "This draft legislation has all the criteria of a systematic undermining of democracy: namely, the abdication of authority to security forces by an elected government, military-style 'civilizing' of civilian society by insultingly presuming to teach them how to stand in line, urinate and defecate," Mufti said. "It also has ring of an effort to appease the muscular nationalists in Delhi with an argument against AFSPA by morphing it into a 'non-military' AFSPA that is supposedly willed by 'the people' of our state".

Mufti termed the Bill an attempt of social policing. "If this Bill passed then a person can be jailed for wrong parking, cleaning furniture in a public place, urinating on the road side, not caring for pets, overtaking and breaking a queue for essential supplies" she said. "For a state which doesn't have a single public urinal anywhere and very few parking places, these provisions only point to government's insulting and feudal attitude towards its people".

The PDP President also questioned the timing of the bill being made public and asked people to stand against it. "The government has deliberately chosen this time for inviting suggestions on the bill when means of communication have been severely restricted," Mufti said. "It is time for the entire society to rise against such perverse application of the concept of police reform".

Independent legislator Engineer Rashid has termed the Bill as an attempt to provide AFSPA provisions to Police. "It (bill) is to legalize martial law," Rashid told The Indian Express. "This is like having AFSPA for the police".

The separatists too have criticized the proposed bill. "This is an extension of AFSPA to the police," JKLF's Vice Chairman Bashir Ahmad Bhat said. "J-K is already a police state and the aim is to crush the people. This Bill has exposed the Indian democracy".

The coalition partners Congress and National Conference have preferred silence over the proposed bill. "I haven't read this draft bill yet," said National Conference spokesman Tanveer Sadiq. "So we can't comment on it".

Congress spokesman Muzaffar Parray too declined to comment. "I have certain compulsions and can't offer any comment about it," he said.

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