New Delhi:
AS Dulat, former chief of Research and Analysis Wing and the author of the explosive memoir “Chief Minister and the Spy”, said today that the book was laudatory towards the former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Farooq Abdullah. The book, which is yet to be released, has sparked a massive political row in Jammu and Kashmir with its controversial claim that Mr Abdullah was ready to back the scrapping of the Constitution’s Article 370 five years ago. In the book, Mr Dulat has claimed that the former Chief Minister had spoken on this while they were discussing the matter in 2020.
Mr Abdullah and his party have issued a flat denial, and the former Chief Minister has even accused the author of indulging in sensationalism to sell the book.
“This book is not a critique of Farooq Abdullah. This book is an appreciation of Farooq Abdullah,” the former RAW chief told NDTV in an exclusive interview this evening.
“Most of what I have written is laudatory to Farooq. I don’t know why people have picked up one paragraph and misinterpreted it,” he said.
The controversial paragraph in the book read: “Farooq was terribly hurt. Just as the BJP has never hidden its intention towards Kashmir and as far as Article 370 was concerned, so too had Farooq been extremely open about his willingness to work with Delhi. Maybe, he said, the National Conference could even had the proposal passed in the assembly. We would have helped, he told me when I met him in 2020. Why were we not taken into confidence.”
Asked whether Mr Abdullah said he was willing to work with the BJP to scrap Article 370, Mr Dulat insisted that the context of Mr Abdullah’s comment needs to be understood.
Mr Abdullah was “very distraught, he felt betrayed and he was heartbroken,” that he was not taken into confidence, especially when they had met the Prime Minister days before, Mr Dulat said.
What needs to be understood here is that “Farooq has always worked with Delhi, he has always been with India, he is the ultimate nationalist in Kashmir and if people do not understand that, it is sad,” he added.
Farooq Abdullah, who was the prime mover for the formation of Gupkar Alliance to seek the restoration of Article 370 and statehood for Jammu and Kashmir, has said this anecdote is a “figment of imagination” of Mr Dulat, and accused him of “cheap stunts” to boost the sales of his coming book.
“The claim in the book that the National Conference was planning to pass a resolution on the abrogation of the special status is merely a figment of the imagination of the author who claims to be my friend,” Mr Abdullah said.
“A benchmark of common sense should have been adopted by the author while penning the so-called memoirs. He should have remembered that there was no assembly in 2018,” Mr Abdullah pointed. He also said had the assembly been in session too, he would have never considered passing such a resolution.
Mr Dulat’s claims have raised a storm in Kashmir Valley, with not only his political rival People’s Democratic Party, but also a host of smaller parties also heaping criticism on the 84-year-old leader.
“Dulat sahab an ardent Abdullah supporter has shared how Farooq sahab agreed with Delhi’s illegal move of abrogating Article 370. There were already doubts about what transpired between the Abdullahs & PM days before J&Ks special status was revoked. With this it’s clear that Farooq sahab chose to stay in Kashmir instead of the Parliament to help normalise gutting of J&Ks constitution & subsequent betrayal,” posted PDP’s Iltija Mufti.
