Those who believe in J&K's accession should also have faith in instrument of accession: PDP

The People's Democratic Party (PDP) Wednesday hit back at National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval for terming a separate constitution for Jammu and Kashmir as an "abberation" and said those who believe in accession of the state to the Union of India should also have faith in the instrument of accession.

"Anyone who believes and endorses the accession of Jammu and Kashmir with India should also have faith in the clause 8 of the Instrument of Accession which provides for internal sovereignty of the state," PDP chief spokesperson Rafi Ahmad Mir said in a statement.

Mir was reacting to Doval's assertion that having a separate constitution for Jammu and Kashmir was probably an "aberration", stressing that sovereignty can never be compromised.

Mir said such unwarranted remarks of the NSA when Kashmir valley was witnessing a political turmoil, showed his "insensitivity" towards the people of the state.

"The state's internal sovereignty is a matter of right and has a historical significance, although this sovereignty had been reduced to a hollow shell over these years, it continues to be a matter of our identity, symbolic of our collective struggle against autocratic rule," Mir said.

The PDP spokesman said it was unfortunate that when a Muslim-dominated state rejected the two-nation theory and went to accede with a Hindu-majority nation with trust, "we are being harassed, pushed to the wall by these assaults on our state's special status".

This selective discrimination and assaults on the state's special status will only "alienate" the people further as the government of India at the time of accession gave an undertaking that the people of Kashmir could frame their own constitution, he said.

"I would like the NSA to know that the Instrument of Accession is a valid legal document and nobody should forget the essence of clause 8 of the Instrument of Accession, which shows in its opening sentence that the instrument did not in any way effect the 'sovereignty in and over' the acceding state," Mir said.