Srinagar: Former Chief Justice of India Justice T.S. Thakur pulled out of the launch of former Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) chief A.S. Dulat’s book, The Chief Minister and the Spy in the national capital. The book has triggered a political storm in Jammu and Kashmir.

The National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah who is at the centre of the storm over the book also skipped the launch which took place in New Delhi on Friday (18 April), according to an announcement by Juggernaut Books, the publisher.

In a letter to Dulat on Thursday, Thakur noted that Abdullah was scheduled to join a discussion on the book following its launch with the prominent talk-show host Vir Sanghvi.

It was not immediately known whether Sanghvi attended the function.

Thakur attributed his decision to the “raging controversy” and “political storm brewing in the print and electronic media for certain parts” of the book, which have landed Abdullah’s NC in a difficult position with the opposition accusing the ruling party of collusion in the decision of the BJP-led Union government to read down Article 370.

“In the circumstances, you would kindly appreciate that the raging controversy and its political overtones would be an embarrassment for me, which I would like to avoid not only on account of my long and cordial association with the Abdullah family, but also because as a totally apolitical person I would not like to be seen promoting or endorsing a book which is being disowned by the very person about whom the same has been written,” Thakur wrote in the letter.

The former CJI noted that he was “acutely conscious” that his decision “would inconvenience and force you to look for a substitute, but given the situation in which I am placed, you will forgive me for the discomfiture that it may cause to you or the publisher of the book”.

The controversial book has claimed that Abdullah would have supported the reading down of Article 370 if he had been taken on board by the Union government.

However, the NC patriarch has rebutted the claim, saying that the book is “riddled with contradictions”.

“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,” Abdullah said.

His son and Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah also lashed out at Dulat, alleging that he had “distorted facts” to garner publicity for the book ahead of its release.

“To sell his book, it is Dulat saheb’s habit to side with falsehoods. In his first book, he did not spare anyone, and in this one too, he has left no stone unturned to humiliate Farooq sahib. With friends like these, who needs enemies?” Omar told reporters on Thursday.

The NC president’s daughter Safia Abdullah 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. The former spymaster has also authored books on RAW and Pakistan’s external intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, among others.

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

During the meeting, Abdullah reportedly 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 claimed.

The opposition Peoples' Democratic Party has criticised the NC for allegedly being “complicit” in the change in Jammu and Kashmir’s special status in 2019 and for being “quiet facilitators of our disempowerment”.

Note: An earlier version of this report erroneously mentioned that the book launch was scheduled to take place at Bahrisons Booksellers where the author was scheduled only to sign the copies of his book. The error is regretted.

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