• Source:JND
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National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Wednesday rejected former RAW chief AS Dulat’s claim that he supported the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019. Expressing disappointment, Abdullah said “Dulat sahab’s book is full of so many inaccuracies”. He called the statement “completely wrong" and clarified that he was in jail when the Centre revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s special status. Farooq Abdullah, in public, has repeatedly voiced his opposition to the abrogation of Article 370 from the Constitution that gave a special status to Jammu and Kashmir, but in private, he backed the Centre’s move, former RAW chief AS Dulat has made a claim in his new book, ‘The Chief Minister and the Spy’.

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“Dulat sahab’s book is full of so many inaccuracies, I can’t even begin to describe them. It’s unfortunate — if he really considers me a friend, then he wouldn’t have written such things. In the book, he claims I asked him whom to make CM when I formed the government in 1996 — that’s completely false," Abdullah told PTI.

In his public speeches and media interactions, Abdullah repeatedly called the Modi government’s August 5, 2019, step a “betrayal"; however, he sang a different tune in private, according to the book that has made explosive claims, Hindustan Times reported.

What Did Former RAW Chief AS Dulat Say About Farooq Abdullah In His Book?

"We would have helped (pass the proposal). Why were we not taken into confidence?" Abdullah asked Dulat, the book said.
Abdullah and his son (now the J&K Chief Minister) Omar had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi – a meeting which came days before the Centre’s historic move, the secrecy of which was maintained until the last moment when the Bill was presented in the Parliament.

“What transpired…nobody will ever know," Dulat wrote in his book.

After the passage of the Bill, Abdullah was detained for nearly seven months. “They (government) wanted him to accept the new reality," Dulat wrote.

In 2020, when Abdullah was released from detention, he refused to endorse the government’s decision. “Whatever I say, I will say in Parliament," the former J&K chief minister told Dulat.

Abdullah was the one who joined hands with long-time rivals such as PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti and forged the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), to raise voice against the Centre’s “unilateral" decision and seek the restoration of Article 370 and statehood to Jammu and Kashmir, which was temporarily turned to a Union Territory with a promise to give its statehood back at an appropriate time.