Constitution being undermined in BJP rule, judiciary only option left: Mehbooba

Alleging that Indian constitution is being undermined time and again under BJP’s rule, former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday said that the only option and recourse left is the judiciary.

However, she said once they too decide to wash their hands off matters which involve our fundamental rights where does one go.

“Under BJPs rule, Indian constitution is being undermined time & again. Only option & recourse left is the judiciary. Once they too decide to wash their hands off matters which involve our fundamental rights where does one go?” Ms Mehbooba, who is the president of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), wrote on micro-blogging site twitter.

Ms Mehbooba was responding to a tweet, which read, “SC recognised right to travel abroad as part of fundamental right to life and personal liberty under Article 21. Denying former BJP ally and ex CM @MehboobaMufti a new passport opens door to arbitrary misuse of Passport Act provisions against all citizens.”

The PDP chief and her mother were denied passport following adverse police report. The passport application of Gulshan Nazir, wife of former Union Home Minister and two-time J&K chief minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, was rejected following an adverse police report. Ms Mehbooba’s passport was also not renewed by authorities over ‘national security concerns’.

Ms Mehbooba, who was the chief minister in previous PDP-BJP coalition government in J&K, had applied for a fresh passport in December last year after the previous one expired on May 31, 2020. However, the application was not cleared in the absence of a police verification report following which Ms Mehbooba approached J&K High Court in March this year.

Ms Mehbooba, former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Farooq Abdullah, besides scores of mainstream politicians, including former ministers and MLAs, and social activists were placed  under detention on August 5, 2019, when Centre abrogated Article 370 and and divided the state into two Union Territories. The PDP chief was released from detention in October 2020 after the J&K administration revoked the Public Safety Act (PSA) charges against her.

UNI