Srinagar: A new book by former Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) chief A.S. Dulat, which claims that the president of the ruling National Conference (NC) Farooq Abdullah would have supported the reading down of Article 370 if he had been taken on board by the Union government, has triggered a political storm in Jammu and Kashmir.

While the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) has criticised the NC for allegedly being “complicit” in the change in J&K’s special status in 2019 and being “quiet facilitators of our disempowerment”, the NC president has hit back, saying Dulat’s book is “riddled with contradictions”.

Abdullah’s daughter Safia also came to her father’s rescue, saying that she “never trust[ed] Dulat”, who has “played fast and loose with the truth once again”.

The Chief Minister and the Spy is Dulat’s second book focusing on Kashmir and is scheduled to be released by Juggernaut Books on Friday (April 18).

Dulat has also authored books on RAW and Pakistan’s external intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, among others.

‘NC could have helped read down Article 370 more smoothly if needed’: Abdullah as per Dulat

In the new book, the former spymaster, who has worked with both mainstream and separatist leaders in Kashmir as part of backchannel efforts to resolve the Kashmir problem with Pakistan, claims that the NC patriarch told him that he “would have helped” the BJP-led Union government in its decision to read down Article 370.

On August 5, 2019, the BJP-led Union government introduced the J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019 in parliament, under which the erstwhile state was bifurcated and demoted into two Union territories.

In the Kashmir valley, a security clampdown which lasted several weeks was ordered by the Union government, while all of J&K slipped into a communication blackhole.

Ahead of the move, Abdullah, his son and J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah, and senior party leader and former Lok Sabha MP Hasnain Masoodi had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the national capital.

The meeting had triggered a lot of speculation and allegations in J&K at the time and the opposition had pointed accusatory fingers at the NC over the closed-door meeting.

“What transpired … nobody will ever know,” Dulat wrote in his latest book about the meeting that took place on August 1, 2019, four days ahead of the historic 2019 decision.

Abdullah and his son, along with PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti and other mainstream and separatist leaders, were detained and later booked under the controversial Public Safety Act (PSA) on August 4, 2019. The detention lasted several months for most mainstream leaders.

In his first interview after being released from detention, Abdullah had told NDTV that during the meeting, Modi told him something which “I don’t think I should say at this point”.

He claimed that Modi was “absolutely kind and nice and unbelievable”.

He has not clarified what Modi told him.

In an interview to Karan Thapar, Dulat said that he met Abdullah a year after Article 370 was read down.

During the meeting, Abdullah told Dulat that he “could even have the proposal [to read down Article 370] passed in the legislative assembly in Jammu and Kashmir … which would not have required locking up everyone”.

According to Dulat, Abdullah was “unhappy” over the way in which Article 370 was read down. “He was against the abrogation of 370. Every Kashmiri was against the abrogation. It’s just that what he was saying at that point of time is that we [the NC] could have helped in doing it more smoothly if it had to be done”.

Dulat’s claims draw PDP’s ire

Taking to X, PDP leader Iltija Mufti alleged that her party had already raised “doubts about what transpired” in the meeting.

“With this [Dulat’s claim] it’s clear that Farooq sahab chose to stay in Kashmir instead of the parliament to help normalise gutting of J&K’s constitution & subsequent betrayal,” she wrote.

Terming Abdullah as a “special friend” of Dulat’s, PDP leader Waheed Para said that the NC patriarch had told the media that Modi assured them in the meeting that any move on August 5 would not be against the interests of J&K.

“Since the ratification of J&K’s accession with the Union of India, whenever Kashmiris have opposed the erosion of their special status, the NC has not just supported and legitimised such manoeuvres but also put a seal of approval on them,” he said.

Demanding answers from the ruling party, Para alleged that after coming to power, the NC has “normalised the silence” about the “rampant bans and arrests” in J&K and the “disempowerment” of people, while preventing debates on Article 370 and the Waqf (Amendment) Bill in the recently concluded budget session of the J&K assembly.

“This [Dulat’s book] clearly shows that the party has been a silent approver of the BJP’s policies on Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.

Abdullah asks, ‘Why would I side with BJP when they jailed me?’

However, rejecting Dulat’s claims, Abdullah said that the book is “riddled with errors”.

“There are so many mistakes in the book that I can’t even explain. It’s unfortunate that he [Dulat] calls me a friend. A friend would never write such things,” he told PTI.

The NC president said that his party has always sided with the people when it comes to the larger interests of J&K.

“Why would I side with the BJP when I was jailed by them? If we had to betray Article 370, why would we pass a resolution in the assembly with a two-third majority [after the 1996 assembly election]?” he asked.

Invoking Queen Elizabeth, he said: “Recollections may vary.”

His daughter Safia posted on X: “I have never trusted Dulat as far as I could throw him. He was always a spy whose loyalty was only to himself. He never cared who he threw under the bus with his previous books. I have read this book and he has played fast and loose with the truth once again.”

Tanvir Sadiq, the party’s chief spokesman, said that the NC patriarch forged unity among the mainstream parties by leading the charge of the Peoples’ Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) after his release from PSA detention in the aftermath of the reading down of Article 370.

“The author is contradicting himself by saying that the government of India was gauging the thought process of Farooq Abdullah saheb for seven months when he was detained. After his release, he took the PAGD forward. The alliance would have never existed [if Abdullah supported the revocation of Article 370],” Sadiq, who represents the Zadibal constituency of the J&K assembly, said.

He added: “The book is a figment of imagination. The author is trying to find relevance for himself.”

The PAGD or the Gupkar Alliance was formed initially by six political parties to wage a political and legal battle against the reading down of Article 370.

After the exit of the Congress and Sajad Lone’s Peoples’ Conference, the PAGD comprised only four parties, which contested last year’s Lok Sabha and J&K assembly elections separately, reducing the alliance to existing solely on paper.