Revelations by former Research and Analysis Wing chief A S Dulat in his new book, The Chief Minister and the Spy, have put the National Conference in a spot, particularly over his claim that party chief Farooq Abdullah was “willing to work with Delhi” on the abrogation of Article 370.
Dulat claims in his book that Abdullah told him, “We would have helped. Why were we not taken into confidence?” on the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status.
On Wednesday, Abdullah said he is saddened over the many inaccuracies in the book. Saying that “a friend doesn’t write like this”, Abdullah referred to Queen Elizebath’s words that “recollections may vary”.
Dulat wrote in his book: “Just as BJP had never hidden its intentions towards Kashmir 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 NC could even have had the proposal passed in the legislative assembly in Jammu and Kashmir. ‘We would have helped,’ he told me when I met him in 2020. ‘Why were we not taken into confidence?’,” he wrote.
Reacting to the revelations, Peoples Conference president Sajad Lone said he is not surprised. “Dulat sahib has revealed in his upcoming book that Farooq sahib privately supported the abrogation of Article 370. Coming from Dulat sahib makes this revelation very credible. Dulat sahib is the closest ally and friend of Farooq sahib. Virtually his alter ego,” Lone said in a post on X.
Lone said the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior Abdullah and his son Omar Abdullah just before the abrogation of Article 370 was “not a mystery for me”.
Story continues below this ad
“I can visualise Farooq sahib saying — Humey roney deejiye, aap apna kaam karein, hum aap kay saath hain (let us cry, you do your work, we are with you),” Lone said. “It now seems 2024 was a prize for services rendered in 2019. Of course in national interest.”
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) legislator and youth president Waheed Para said the revelations made by Dulat “rip off the last remaining mask”. “The fiery speeches, the staged outrage, the carefully crafted image of ‘fighting the BJP’ – it was all theatre. A performance designed to mislead the people of Jammu and Kashmir into believing that the National Conference was standing guard over their rights. In truth, they were complicit – quiet facilitators of our disempowerment,” Para said.
“Their (NC’s) legacy is not one of resistance but of convenient silence dressed up as statesmanship. This well-rehearsed charade has only one purpose: to normalise the abrogation of 370 and 35A, and the climate of fear and intimidation unleashed post-August 5, 2019 – under the convenient label of a ‘popular government’,” he said.
PDP’s Iltija Mufti said there were already doubts about what transpired between the Abdullahs and Prime Minister Modi days before J&K’s special status was revoked. “Dulat sahab, an ardent Abdullah supporter, has shared how Farooq sahab agreed with Delhi’s illegal move of abrogating Article 370,” she said. “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.”
Story continues below this ad
Amid the blowback, Abdullah said in Srinagar: “It is unfortunate that he calls me a friend, a friend can’t write like this… He has written such things which are not true… A book was written about the Royal family of England, by one of their family members. (Queen) Elizebath used only one word – ‘recollections may vary’.”
Abdullah said Dulat has written that he (Abdullah) asked him whom to make a minister after winning the 1996 elections. “He says I (Dulat) told him to make a small cabinet. There were 25 ministers in my cabinet; why should I ask him?” Abdullah said. “He has written that we (NC) were ready to join hands with the BJP. This is inaccurate… If we had to betray (Article) 370, why would Farooq Abdullah (pass a resolution on autonomy) with a two-thirds majority in the assembly?”
Abdullah said Dulat had taken credit for convincing him to contest the 1996 elections. “It is absolutely inaccurate,” he said, adding that the then-US ambassador to India, Frank Wisner, motivated him to contest.
National Conference chief spokesman Tanvir Sadiq said: “He (Dulat) wants to make himself relevant, he wants to make it (book) controversial. The book contradicts itself. It says that for seven months, the Centre was trying to gauge the sense of Farooq sahib. If that would have been true, would Farooq sahib run the PAGD (People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration) after seven months (when he was released)?”