Hyderabad: When the BJP-led central government abrogated Article 370 in 2019 and divided and downgraded Jammu and Kashmir into two federally controlled territories, Kashmir politicians, including the father-son duo from National Conference, had accused New Delhi of betrayal, especially the way the decision was carried out.
However, former Research and Analysis Wing chief A.S. Dulat, in his new book 'The Chief Minister and the Spy - An Unlikely Friendship', claims Farooq was willing to “work with Delhi” had he been consulted. Not only that, Farooq, according to Dulat, told him that his party National Conference, “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?’ Dulat writes in his book published by Juggernaut.
Referring to Farooq and Omar’s meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi days before the 370 abrogation, Dulat writes: "What transpired during the meeting, nobody will ever know. Farooq has certainly never mentioned it.”
For Dulat, Farooq’s house arrest was the “saddest story in Kashmir” as the NC president questioned his detention during a conversation with the former spy chief. “When he spoke to me about the abrogation later, he was forthright, ‘Kar lo agar karna hai,’ he said, somewhat bitterly. ‘Par yeh arrest kyu karna tha?’ (Do it if you must, but why arrest us?),” Dulat writes in his book.
He also talks about how Farooq is different from his son Omar – both having served as Chief Ministers of the erstwhile state, with Omar currently serving as the first CM of the UT.
Farooq, according to Dulat, has always sought to be on Delhi’s right side, but not on Delhi’s terms, unlike Omar, who goes out of his way to please Delhi.
“He [Farooq] always looked for a level playing field and, in the end, did it his way, which Delhi could never comprehend. For instance, after his release from detention in March 2020, Delhi expected him to come and meet the prime minister. But he took his time on the excuse that he needed cataract surgeries in both his eyes. He came to Delhi only in July 2020. That is the difference between Farooq and Omar. When Omar says he wants a good relationship with Delhi, he goes out of his way to please Delhi. Farooq does what he thinks will go down best with his people."
Dulat says Delhi has “almost always” missed the bus with Farooq as he goes on to narrate a 2014 phone call he got from IB headquarters.
“I was holidaying in Goa, when I got a call from IB headquarters in Delhi, ‘Do you have Doctor Sahib’s London telephone number?’ ‘I do,’ I replied. ‘But I hardly have it here on the beach! Baat kya hai? Ab aap phone karna chah rahe ho, but it’s too late now.’ (What is the matter? If you want to call him now, it’s too late.) ‘Nahi, nahi, we just wanted to enquire about his health.’
‘Well, even there you’re too late.’ It was another indicator of how tall a leader Doctor Sahib is. It was an indicator, as well, of how, try as Delhi might to dismiss him, it can never ignore Farooq. He is the face not just of his party but of the Valley in modern India,” the book reads.
Dulat, recalling his conversations with the NC patron over the years, says Farooq was clear that he did not want to be anything like his father, Sheikh Abdullah, National Conference founder and one of the tallest political leaders from Kashmir.
"Farooq wanted to be his own person," he writes, but right after adds that it was a "difficult task that he set himself". “After all, the Abdullah legacy is not an easy one to step away from."
In the book, Dulat also recalls an incident from March 6, 1990, when he got a call from Delhi, informing him about the arrival of RC Mehta, an IB officer, from Ahmedabad to Srinagar. The caller, he writes, asked him to receive Mehta at the airport.
“I agreed politely and put down the phone, wondering (rather naïvely, in retrospect!) who the hell would visit Srinagar of all places at this time. Then it struck me. Mehta’s arrival meant that I was going. Hastily, I called Delhi back. ‘Mehta Sahib ko main receive kar lunga,’ I said pleasantly. ‘Par mere ko kab Dilli aana hai?’ (I’ll receive Mehta Sahib, of course – but when do I have to come to Delhi?) ‘Jitni jaldi ho sakey,’ was the response. (As soon as possible.)”
Dulat then recalls calling Farooq right after the Delhi call, informing him about Mehta’s arrival, asking if he could bring him (Mehta) across for a cup of tea.
“For a few seconds, there was silence at the other end of the line. Clearly, Farooq was as taken aback as I had been. ‘Kyun aa raha hai?’ he demanded finally. (Why is he coming?) ‘Meri chhutti ho rahi hai,’ I said amiably. (I’m being transferred.) ‘Oh boy.’ Farooq agreed to meet with Mehta, though he asked me to meet with him an hour before Mehta arrived at the house. I remember that conversation like it was yesterday. Farooq had never beaten around the bush with me, but during this last conversation, he was particularly frank. I recall something that he told me that evening. ‘You know,’ he said quietly, ‘I’m not my father. Please understand that. I have not joined politics to spend 12 years in jail. I will always be with whoever is in power in Delhi’,” Dulat writes.
Describing his latest work, Dulat says the book “is not a biography, but a memoir of my times with Doctor Sahib”. “When I began thinking of writing this book, I talked it over with Doctor Sahib. In fact, we spoke about it umpteen times. He never said no, but there was never a clear yes – until the summer of 2024, when I told him that I had finally begun writing it. ‘Karo na,’ he said. (Go ahead.)
Farooq Fumes, Calls Dulat's Claims 'Cheap Stunts'
Farooq Abdullah reacted angrily to Dulat's claims, especially those on Article 370 abrogation, and accused him of "cheap stunts" to boost the sales of his forthcoming book.
Speaking to PTI, Farooq dismissed Dulat's claims that the National Conference (NC) would have "helped" pass the proposal to abrogate the special status of the erstwhile state had it been taken into confidence. Read Farooq's rebuttal here.
NC calls Dulat’s Remarks 'Figment of Imagination'
National Conference spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq, while speaking to ETV Bharat, denied that Farooq supported the 370 abrogation, terming the revelations in the book as “mere figment of imagination”.
“If you look at the book and what he writes in it, he contradicts his own words. He writes that the government of India waited for seven months to gauge the sense of Farooq Abdullah when he was in custody. But he set up the PAGD after coming out of jail to challenge the move,” said Sadiq.
The Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), a grouping of political parties, was set to demand revocation of the abrogation of Article 370 and statehood to Jammu and Kashmir. But it later lost steam with the exit of several parties.
Sadiq said Dulat’s previous book targeted Peoples Democratic Party patron and former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayed. “The author wants to stay relevant, and the book is nothing but a mere figment of imagination,” he added.
