Farooq denies RAW ex-chief’s claim he supported Article 370 abrogation

SRINAGAR: National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah rejected Wednesday former RAW chief AS Dulat’s claim that he privately supported the abrogation of Article 370, calling the assertion “misleading and inaccurate”.

“His book has so many mistakes that I cannot describe them,” Abdullah told reporters. “He calls me a friend, but a friend cannot write such things.” He called the suggestion illogical, saying he and other politicians were detained the night Article 370 was revoked on August 5, 2019. “We were in jail. That very night, we were charged under Public Safety Act,” he said.

Dulat’s claim appears in his forthcoming book “The Chief Minister and The Spy”, which has triggered a political storm in J&K. The former intelligence officer, who has written about his long friendship with Abdullah in earlier work, alleged that the NC chief supported the constitutional move in private, contradicting his party’s public position.

NC has demanded the restoration of Article 370 and was the first to file a petition in the Supreme Court challenging its abrogation. Dulat’s revelation has placed the party on the defensive.

Peoples Conference chairman Sajad Lone backed Dulat’s account, citing the former spymaster’s close ties with Abdullah. “He is virtually his alter ego,” Lone said. “I personally am not surprised. The August 2019 meeting of CM sahib and Farooq sahib with the PM was never a mystery for me.”

Farooq Abdullah, his son CM Omar Abdullah, and NC MP Hasnain Masoodi had met PM Narendra Modi in New Delhi days before the abrogation.

PDP politicians also weighed in. Iltija Mufti said the book confirmed long-held suspicions. “Dulat sahib, an ardent Abdullah supporter, has shared how Farooq sahib agreed with Delhi’s illegal move of abrogating Article 370,” she said. “There were doubts about what transpired between the Abdullahs and the PM days before J&K’s special status was revoked.”

PDP’s Waheed Parra accused NC of political complicity. “While PDP faced the brunt of the state’s crackdown — with over 40 politicians jailed, dissent crushed, and journalists targeted — NC remained untouched,” he said. “There was no strong statement, no mass mobilisation. What followed instead was electoral opportunism.”

NC spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq dismissed Dulat’s claim as a fabrication. “He writes many baseless things to make his book popular,” he said. “This is imagination, not fact.”

Abdullah’s daughter Safia also rejected Dulat’s assertions. “I have never trusted Dulat. He was always a spy whose loyalty was only to himself,” she said. “He never cared who he threw under the bus with his books.”

Dulat has earlier defended Abdullah in his books “Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years” and “A Life in the Shadows”, where he criticised Delhi for sidelining the veteran Kashmiri politician.