'Never Said Farooq Wanted to Help Remove Article 370': AS Dulat on Book Row
"The BJP had never hidden its intention toward Kashmir as far as Article 370 is concerned," AS Dulat told The Quint.
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(This interview was filmed days before the 22 April terror attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir.)
Former Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) Chief AS Dulat’s new book ‘The Chief Minister and the Spy’ has led to a political storm in the Union Territory of Kashmir. The part ode-part exposé makes many claims and observations on the illustrious Abdullahs, Kashmir’s tenable relationship with the Centre, as well as Dulat’s own ties with the valley and its oldest political family.
The contentious passage from page 208 of the book reads thus: “Farooq was terribly hurt. Just as the BJP had never hidden its intention towards Kashmir as far as Article 370 was concerned, so too had Farooq been extremely open to working with Delhi. Maybe, he said, the NC, could have had the proposal passed in the Legislative Assembly in J&K. ‘We would have helped,’ he told me when I met him in 2020. ‘Why were we not taken into confidence?’”
Senior journalist Harinder Baweja spoke with Dulat for The Quint, weeks after the launch of his new book, to find out what Dulat had to say about the controversy and his friendship with Farooq. He also spoke of the political difficulties in store for his son and current Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah,
Edited Excerpts:
Farooq Abdullah has been one of your close friends. The whole book talks about your friendship. But you seem to have portrayed him as someone who was willing to help New Delhi with the abrogation of Article 370, which is such a sensitive issue for Kashmir. How do you explain what you have written in page 208?
English is a difficult language to understand and one should not judge a book by just one sentence. A book has to be read in its totality. I regret to say, I don’t think Doctor sahab has read the book. At least, not the whole book.
“We would have helped…” That seems to be the damaging line. That Farooq Abdullah was willing to help the Modi government get rid of Article 370, something every Kashmiri identifies with…
That paragraph says two-three things. One is that Farooq was deeply hurt, heartbroken. Secondly, he says he has always worked with New Delhi. Thirdly, and this point comes up later in the book, his father, he, his children and grandchildren…everyone has been with India. So why were we not taken into confidence? While saying all those things, if Farooq has said, “maybe, we could even have helped if we had been taken into confidence…”. So what? What is all this noise about? If you want to read a book, please read the whole book. No less of a person than the great MK Narayanan has written a foreword in the book. He has praised Farooq to no end, apart from being kind to me. So this noise is very strange for me. Who created it? Where is it coming from? If a national newspaper hadn’t picked up that book and decided to focus on that paragraph, no such controversy would have happened. If Farooq had come to the launch of the book, none of this controversy would have happened.
But he is upset. He is saying it (that particular paragraph) was a “cheap stunt to sell the book”, I’m quoting him…
Did Farooq call it a cheap stunt? Fine. If he thinks the book or any part of it is a cheap stunt, I am fine with it. Whatever Doctor sahab says, I am fine with it.
You met Farooq Abdullah in 2020 when he was still under house arrest. You had gone to suss out his mood, as New Delhi wanted to know what he might say when he was released… While the Centre was afraid he would talk about Pakistan or the abrogation, he didn’t. Instead he told you, ‘Jo bhi hoga, ab Parliament mein hoga…”
Tell me more about that meeting. Was it difficult for you? You were meeting a friend but you also knew you could only be here because New Delhi sent you…was that a difficult line to navigate? What did you say to him?
Yes, he said, ‘Jo hoga, Parliament mein hoga'. I have not had the gumption to tell Dr Farooq what to do. I did tell him that ‘Doctor sahab, I think they are going to release you. Bus media ka khayal rakhna (Just be careful of the media)'. That’s all. It was a very pleasant trip for me, actually. On one hand, I really wanted to meet him personally and enquire about his health. On the other, the fact that New Delhi had sent me meant that they were going to release him…
You have said that Article 370 may have been just a fig leaf of dignity for Kashmiris. But there was no need to touch that fig leaf and strip the Kashmiris of their dignity. Why do you think the Narendra Modi-led government did just that?
Farooq himself explained it, and I mention in page 208. The BJP had never hidden its intention toward Kashmir as far as Article 370 is concerned. That’s it.
Two days before the abrogation, Farooq and Omar Abdullah along with NC leader Hasnain Masoodi called on the Prime Minister. You write in the book that in the meeting, Farooq brought up the unusual deployment of troops and the response he got was so sweet, sugar would have melted in his mouth. What was their impression at the time?
I spoke to Omar about it, he said they were told nothing. The matter of adittional troop deployment did come. But they had no idea abrogation would happen.
Were they wilfully misled? Or do you think a Prime Minister does not reveal these kind of things as part of protocol?
It’s very difficult to say…But somebody is not being totally truthful. I haven’t had the chance to speak with Masoodi about it. But both Farooq and Omar have told me separately they were not informed, that they did not know what was going to happen on 5 August. I have not had the opportunity to ask the Prime Minister…So, I will go by what Doctor sahab has said.
For the full interview, watch the video.