Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury tore into the government Friday for deciding to keep two senior Kashmir leaders in detention using the Public Safety Act, and said the region was with India only physically, not emotionally.
The Public Safety Act (PSA) is a 1978 Jammu and Kashmir law, often described as a draconian measure, that allows authorities to detain a person for up to two years without a trial. Former Chief Ministers Omar Abdullah and Farooq Abdullah were booked under the law on February 6, as were three others.
“You cannot govern Kashmir like this.”
Omar Abdullah’s father, Farooq Abdullah (another ex-CM), has been in detention under the PSA for months.
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Lok Sabha MP from Berhampore, West Bengal, also attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for criticising Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti in Parliament on Thursday.
“You cannot govern Kashmir like this,” he was quoted by saying by ANI.
The Abdullahs and Mehbooba Mufti have been under detention ever since Jammu and Kashmir state’s special status was scrapped — and its bifurcation into two Union Territories announced — in August 2019.
The BJP says it opposes the prolonged detention of any individual, but will not hesitate to support such a measure “if it contributes to peace and restoring normalcy”.
