Instrument of Accession, 1947—legal foundation of India-J&K relation: Mehbooba 

Former CM and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti addressed party workers in the past two days as part of the Party’s Instrument of Accession Day

Contrary to the Lieutenant Governor (L-G) administration’s decision to observe October 26 as the Accession Day in J&K, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday observed the Instrument of Accession Day.

Former Chief Minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti addressed party workers in the past two days as part of the Party’s Instrument of Accession Day.

“The conditions under which J&K acceded to India should be restored. Instead, orders were issued to obliterate all the promises made in October 1947. I want to convey to the people of India that J&K acceded to secular and democratic values and not the BJP,” Ms. Mufti said.

She said the Instrument of Accession signed on October 26, 1947, was a legal document. “It was signed by Maharaja Hari Singh and ratified by the then popular leader Sheikh Abdullah. However, the decisions made on August 5, 2019 were illegal,” Ms. Mufti said.

Ms. Mufti said the people of J&K were going to ask this question about the relation of the Centre with J&K. “Is it of military and laws like Public Safety Act or Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act or humanity as enshrined in the Instrument of Accession,” Ms. Mufti said.

She demanded that the Parliament should have a relook at the Instrument of Accession and its details. “If the Centre wants a legal relationship with J&K then it has to revoke the decisions made in 2019 and refer back to 1949 when the Parliament granted J&K a special status,” she said.

Ms. Mufti accused the BJP of turning J&K into a war theatre. “J&K was a little India where all faiths, whether Hindus or Muslims, lived together. The BJP would call J&K an ‘atoot ang’ (inseparable part). Is this what you do to your ‘atoot aang‘. The country built by Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru is being destroyed by the BJP,” she said.