Having separate constitution for Kashmir was an aberration: NSA Ajit Doval
New Delhi, Sep 5: Having a separate constitution for Jammu and Kashmir was probably an "aberration", National Security Advisor Ajit Doval said as he stressed that sovereignty can never be compromised.
His remarks on Kashmir come at a time the Supreme Court is hearing pleas challenging the constitutional validity of Article 35-A of the Constitution, which provides special rights and privileges to permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir.
Speaking at the launch of a book on Vallabhbhai Patel, Doval also paid glowing tributes to the first home minister of India, saying he had made significant contributions in laying a strong foundation of the country.
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Doval said sovereignty "cannot be a diluted and ill-defined", and added that when the "British left, probably they did not want to leave India as a strong sovereign state."
In this context, he said Patel could see through the plan of the British to sow seeds of disintegration in the country.
"His
contribution
is
not
about
the
merger
of
the
states,
it
is
only
a
means
to
an
end.
The
thing
was
that
to
make
a
sovereign
state
in
which
there
was
the
sovereignty
of
the
people
was
established
in
the
Constitution,
which
is
applicable
to
the
whole
of
it.
Probably
with
Jammu
and
Kashmir,
where
the
Constitution
was...in
a
truncated
form...another
constitution
of
J&K
continued
to
exist,
which
is
[an]
aberration,"
Doval
said
at
the
event
at
Vivekananda
International
Foundation
(VIF),
a
think-tank.
Doval
is
also
one
of
the
founders
of
the
VIF.
Talking about the British rule, he said one of their plans was to let the princely states decide for themselves, hoping that there would be chaos in the country.
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"He (Patel) has been able to lay the foundation of a nation-state. And in nation-state, there was one law, one Constitution...Sovereignty can never be divided," Doval said.
The former top spy said nation building is an "exothermic process" that generates a lot of heat.
Unless that heat is generated it is not able to have that melting point in which all the different identities can merge and become one identity.
"Probably the heat was not sufficiently generated during our Independence movement because of the route that was taken. I am not criticising that...the non-violence was the route in which the cost of Independence was not really understood by our people," Doval said.