Rowlatt redux?

PSA dossiers against two former CMs point to overreach

The Public Safety Act (PSA) dossiers against former Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah, who completed six months of house arrest, appear to have come straight from the playbook of the world’s most authoritarian regimes. The 42-year-old Act allows a person to be taken into custody to prevent him or her from acting in a “manner prejudicial to the security of the state and maintenance of public order” for up to two years. Even within that broad and ambiguous remit, the dossiers against Ms Mufti and Mr Abdullah are bizarre and thin on hard evidence.