Lone khalid cni
Srinagar, (CNI) Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah on Wednesday dismissed ex-R&AW chief A S Dulat’s claims that he had “privately backed” the Article 370 abrogation as a “cheap stunt” to boost the sales of the top spy’s forthcoming memoir.
He suggested that Dulat’s motive behind penning the book — ‘The Chief Minister and the Spy’, slated for release on April 18 — could be an attempt to reach the power corridors or earn a lot of money. “It is possible that he wants to make a new relationship,” Abdullah told PTI.
Reacting angrily to Dulat’s assertion 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, the 87-year-old president of the party said this was a “figment of imagination” of the author.
Highlighting gaps in Dulat’s reasoning, he said, “A benchmark of common sense should have been adopted by the author while penning the so-called memoir. He should have remembered that there was no assembly in 2018 as it had been dissolved.” Abdullah insisted that even if the assembly had been in session, he would have never considered passing such a resolution.
“I was the one who had a two-third majority in the 1996 election. I passed a resolution in the assembly seeking greater autonomy. Dulat’s claims in the book are contradictory to my actions which have always been for strengthening the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” the former chief minister said.
Asked whether he had the opportunity to review the book, the NC president remarked, “It is so full of inaccuracies that, after a while, I thought I was reading a fiction and left it.” The former chief minister also referred to a specific error in Dulat’s claim of advising him against having a large Cabinet in 1996, to say he was “sworn in with 25 ministers”, not a small number as suggested.
Abdullah dismissed Dulat’s portrayal of their relationship, particularly the claim that he frequently heeded the top spy’s advice.
The author claims that Abdullah would always listen to his advice, which is yet another example of underestimating me. I am a man of my own mind, and I only decide. I am not anyone’s puppet,” he asserted.
Abdullah strongly denied Dulat’s assertion that the NC wanted closer relations with the BJP. “Dulat’s claim that the National Conference wanted to get close to the BJP is an absolute lie. I am not the one who will patch up with a party that is out and out to destroy my party.” The NC chief also refuted the ex-R&AW chief’s claim that he had decided to take part in the 1996 elections at the top spy’s insistence. Abdullah credited former US Ambassador to India Frank Wisner for the decision.
“It was Frank Wisner, thank God he is alive today, who advised me to contest,” Abdullah said and recalled the ex-envoy’s metaphor of a “window” leading to a “house”.