KL Report

Srinagar

Describing the proposed Police Bill as an attempt to institutionalise the dreaded Ikhwan culture in the state, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday said it would strongly oppose its passage in the present form.Mehbooba Mufti: I wish it doesn't consume another generation of Kashmiri youth but one cannot wish away the apprehension

“Police in the state definitely is in need of drastic reforms but many provisions in this bill are undemocratic and anti people and will take the state back to medieval times when khaki uniform struck terror in the hearts of people,” PDP President, Mehbooba Mufti said.

Mehbooba said 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 covert it to a lawless state. “If this Bill is allowed to pass in its present form we will have an Ikhwani state in which the thunder and not the democratic institutions or the elected representatives will set the rules of the society,” she said.

She also said that on the 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.

“The proposal to create special security zones (SSZs) and legalisation of Village Defence Committees which could be administered according to the discretion of the police through SPOs is dangerous for any society but for a conflict ridden area it could be a sure prescription for continuing the disturbed conditions and denial of basic rights,” she said.

Pertinently, the police draft legislation has in it the criteria like 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.

“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 peoples” of our state,” PDP president maintained.

Mehbooba said 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.

Pointing out that the Bill provided for arrest of a person in case of non-rendering of assistance to a Police Officer, Mehbooba said this government is unable to look beyond repressive measures to run the state and treats everybody as a criminal.

Mehbooba said the government had deliberately chosen this time for inviting suggestions on the bill when means of communication have been severely restricted. “The state police is part of the larger society and share with rest of population a value system that is special to the state. It was the same police that helped the healing touch policy of the PDP led coalition but the way the present government has misused this institution it looks in conflict with the society,” she said, adding, “That is a dangerous situation which could be worsened by measures proposed to be introduced through the Police Bill.”

 

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