Our man in Srinagar: Fall of Farooq Abdullah
Editor’s note: Kashmir is dangerous terrain—for those who live there and those who speak of it. This is an excerpt from ‘The Chief Minister And The Spy’ by former RAW chief AS Dulat—who offers an unexpected view of the patriarch of the state’s First Family: Farooq Abdullah. The tragedy of a man who faithfully served New Delhi—and yet was arrested as a national security risk in 2019, when Article 370 was revoked.
This excerpt has been published with permission from Juggernaut publishers.
Since April 2019, Farooq had warned of an impending political crisis in Kashmir. ‘If it [India] does not pay heed to the wishes of the people, the consequences are grave,’ he said. ‘We will fight for the rights of people…’
Farooq was, as always, being a consummate politician. Nobody could choreograph an election better than he, with elan and charm, yet forcefulness. Farooq, in all the many years that I have known him, has never issued an ultimatum or laid down the law for Delhi. In 1990, shortly before I left Kashmir, he told me quite clearly that he was not his father. Farooq was not the Sheikh.
He was in politics to work with Delhi, not against it. Because of what the Sher-e-Kashmir suffered, Delhi has always remained in Farooq’s consciousness, no matter who was in power. Like his father, he saw a commonality with the Congress, but other than in Rajiv Gandhi’s time, he invariably felt let down. Deve Gowda remained his favourite prime minister. Sadly, those whom he cared for let him down the most. Who would blame him, then, even if he joined the BJP, knowing fully well that Kashmir would never forgive him, as it has never forgiven the Muftis?
If Farooq preferred the Congress, it was because of its secular DNA. Perhaps he saw something of himself in it as Sheikh Sahib did, which kept Kashmir with India. The Sheikh’s aura helped maintain Kashmiri ego. Farooq has Allah’s canopy over him, and God knows he still has much to do. For him, the abrogation of Article 370 was a political problem and it needed to be dealt with as such. He knew it was on the BJP’s manifesto. That it would come quite like this, I am not sure he expected. In the days leading to the abrogation itself, both Farooq and Omar met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. What transpired during the meeting, nobody will ever know. Farooq has certainly never mentioned it. But on 5 August 2019, the Centre abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution. The decision led to the reorganization of the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union territories and denuded it of its special privileges.
The state was readied for a backlash. Section 144 was declared, preventing the gathering of people in public places. Schools, offices and educational institutions were closed. On 4 August, satellite phones were distributed in central, north and south Kashmir among the security forces. The government ordered a total communication blackout, shutting down cable TV, landlines, cellphones and the internet. Doctors and district administrators were advised to remain on standby. The Abdullahs and the Muftis were put under house arrest on 4 August, even as a large number of Indian army troops were moved into the Valley.
At 11.30 pm on the night of 4 August, as he awaited the Centre’s announcement the next morning, Omar tweeted, ‘There [is] no way of knowing if this is true, but if it is, then I will see all of you on the other side of whatever is in store. Allah save us.’ In yet another tweet, that night, he wrote, ‘To the people of Kashmir: we don’t know what is in store for us, but I am a firm believer that whatever Almighty Allah has planned, it is always for the better. We may not see it now, but we must never doubt his ways. Good luck to everyone. Stay safe, and above all, please stay calm.’
The political and popular reaction in the state was visceral. Omar called the Government of India’s move on Article 370 ‘a total betrayal of the trust that the people of Jammu and Kashmir had reposed in India, when the state acceded to it in 1947’. Asgar Ali Karbalai, the former chief executive councillor of Kargil’s Hill Development Council, said that the people of Kargil considered the division of the state on any grounds — religious, linguistic or regional — to be undemocratic.
On 16 September, New Delhi detained Farooq and slapped him with the Public Safety Act, a stringent law under which he could be in jail without trial for six months, extendable up to two years. Other top leaders detained included Omar and Mehbooba Mufti. For me, Farooq’s arrest stood out almost starkly in comparison to everyone else. Not just on humanitarian grounds, but because it highlighted just how grimly determined Delhi was to stamp its authority on the Valley. There was no better symbol of that than jailing Farooq.
There were some Kashmiri youngsters who were quite happy to see him detained and said, ‘Aur bolo “Bharat Mata Ki Jai!”’ (So much for shouting ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai!’) This was based on a video which ultimately turned out to be fake. At the same time, my friend, General Asad Durrani from Pakistan, also said, ‘Good for him! He deserves to be kept locked up for a long time!’
Ironically, a couple of weeks later, when the paperback version of the book I co-authored with Gen. Durrani – The Spy Chronicles – appeared, where, in his foreword, Doctor Sahib had been highly complimentary of the General, Durrani promptly sent me a message, ‘Express my gratitude and convey my regards to Doctor Sahib!’
The abrogation of Article 370 — which has since been upheld by a Supreme Court verdict in 2023 — gained widespread criticism from Kashmiri and other political leaders…
Farooq was terribly hurt. Just as the BJP had never hidden its intentions towards Kashmir as far as Article 370 was concerned, so, too, had Farooq been extremely open about his willingness to work with Delhi. Maybe, he said, the NC could even have had the proposal passed in the legislative assembly in Jammu and Kashmir. ‘We would have helped,’ he told me when I met him in 2020.‘Why were we not taken into confidence?’
If that sounds like a contradiction to the quote with which I opened this chapter, let me tell you — Farooq is a contradiction himself ! To my mind, this remark in 2020 just highlighted his great practicality under the most appalling political and popular pressure. But it also revealed — at least to me — how deeply he was hurt by Delhi’s arbitrary actions. I genuinely felt that in all of 2019, Farooq’s house arrest was the saddest story in Kashmir. Here was a man who had been chief minister thrice, who had been a union minister, and who was promised at one stage the vice-presidentship of India, and who might well have been the president of India today if luck had favoured him. God knew why he had been detained.
