Asks “What Stops BJP OR RSS from doing the same?”; Holds CM Omar accountable for this Constitutional Impropriety
Srinagar, June 6: J&K Peoples Conference President and MLA Handwara Sajad Gani Lone on Saturday launched a stinging attack on former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti over her chairing of a review meeting at AIIMS, calling it an “unconstitutional trespass” and demanding that she publicly admit it was an error of judgement.
Lone warned that Mehbooba Mufti’s act, carried out without holding any elected office, has set a dangerous precedent that could open the floodgates for other non-elected individuals to assume similar institutional authority in Jammu & Kashmir.
“The chairing of the review meeting at AIIMS by a non-MLA was an unconstitutional trespass and will remain an unconstitutional trespass,” Lone said.
Directing his remarks pointedly at Mehbooba Mufti, Lone posed a direct question: if she can chair a review meeting of a central institution today without being an MLA, what stops an RSS or BJP non-MLA functionary from doing the same — especially when they can point to 28 MLAs against the PDP’s four?
“What stops Dr. Farooq Abdullah Sahib, Azad Sahib, or Nirmal Singh Sahib from chairing similar meetings? The list can go on and on,” Lone said, underscoring that no such political entitlement exists anywhere else in India.
He further questioned whether the elected political space in J&K was “destined to be a fish market,” warning that by not admitting her error, Mehbooba Mufti had effectively opened the door for “all sorts of unelected and most likely politically undesirable species, especially in Kashmir, to chair similar meetings.”
Lone also turned his guns on Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, holding him partly responsible for the situation. He argued that the CM’s pattern of setting his ministers against opposition MLAs and eroding their authority had created the conditions for this constitutional impropriety to occur in the first place.
“Had the CM not set his ministers against the opposition MLAs and eroded their authority, this event of constitutional impropriety may not have taken place,” Lone said, demanding that the Chief Minister clarify these issues once and for all.
Lone also pre-empted any argument that Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda’s involvement or approval lent legitimacy to Mehbooba’s chairing of the meeting.
“Nadda Sahib is the honourable Health Minister of India. But he does not have the power to redesign constitutional roles,” Lone said flatly, adding that whether Mehbooba called Nadda or not “hardly changes anything.”
PC President had earlier described the move as one “packed with audacity” and warned it amounted to “nothing short of a constitutional crisis.”
He had then questioned whether J&K was witnessing the rise of a third power centre, operating in the shadows of the elected government, and warned: “It is Mehbooba Ji today. It could be somebody else tomorrow.”
Lone made clear that he remains open to Mehbooba Mufti walking back the act by acknowledging it as a mistake. But if she does not, he warned, she would be leaving the door permanently open with consequences that could prove far more damaging to J&K’s already fragile constitutional order than the AIIMS meeting itself.
“It is imperative that she admits it was an error of judgement,” he said.
