Separate J&K Constitution An ‘Aberration’, Sovereignty Of India Cannot Be ‘Ill-Defined’: NSA Ajit Doval

As petitions are being heard in Supreme Court on the constitutional validity of Article 35A and Jammu and Kashmir constitution, the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval speaking at the launch of a book on Vallabhbhai Patel in New Delhi on Tuesday (4 September) reports India Today.

Ajit Doval opined that a separate constitution for the state is an "aberration" in the constitutional scheme of the Union of India. He said that the sovereignty of India could never be compromised.

“Sovereignty of the nation cannot be a diluted and ill-defined" said Doval. He also said that when the British left, "they probably did not want to leave India as a strong sovereign state."

He opened up in a book launch event that was organised at Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF), a think-tank. Doval is one of the founding members of the VIF. Launching a book on Sardar Vallabhai Patel he said "His (Patel) 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 aberration," Doval added.

"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.