Former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Tuesday questioned the role of the courts in protecting human rights in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and hoped that “rest of India would understand the enormity of injustice faced by those in detention”.
Mr. Chidambaram, in a series of tweets, talked of a ‘lockdown within a lockdown’ in J&K.
“As we began Lockdown 4.0 yesterday, my thoughts were with the people of Kashmir who are in a terrible Lockdown within a Lockdown. The worst sufferers are Mehbooba Mufti and her senior colleagues who are still in detention in a locked down state in a locked down country. They are deprived of every human right,” he said.
Since August 5, when the Centre diluted J&K’s special status under Article 370 of the Constitution, several political leaders, including former Chief Ministers Mehbooba Mufti, Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah, were taken into preventive custody under the Public Safety Act (PSA) .
While the Abdullahs were released after several months of detention, Ms. Mehbooba continues to be in custody under PSA.
The former Union Minister, who also handled J&K when he was in charge of the Union Home Ministry, took a dig at courts over this.
“I cannot believe that for nearly 10 months, the Courts will shirk their Constitutional duty to protect the human rights of citizens,” Mr. Chidambaram said on Twitter.
“At least now, people in the rest of India will understand the enormity of the injustice done to those who were detained and those who are still under detention,” he added.
