He has been a top spy whose claims the separatists in Kashmir could
have dismissed as malicious and motivated. Though most politicians claim
former RAW chief A.S Dulat's disclosures are "selective to favour his
long-time friend Farooq Abdullah", surprisingly, not many believe he has
lied on facts.
Dulat has made these disclosures in his book
"Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years" and ruffled many a feather by sharing some
startling undercover intelligence dealings with both the separatists
and the nationalists here.
Save for sex and sleaze, his account has all the trappings of a James Bond thriller.
Ever
since he was posted in Kashmir in late 1980s initially as an
Intelligence Bureau operative, Dulat has had a roller coaster ride,
dining and wining (as he claims) with both mainstream and separatist
politicians, and encourages one to believe that both sections shared
their fears and hopes more freely with the spies of New Delhi than they
did with their wives.
Beyond this hyperbole which could be
granted to someone who engaged himself more with undercover operations
than his family's welfare, Dulat, while making a clean breast, has put
Kashmiri politicians in a tight spot.
Calling former chief
minister, Dr. Farooq Abdullah, who is deemed more a wronged hero of a
Greek tragedy than as a practical politician, the "ultimate nationalist"
reveals his respect for the National Conference patron which is more
than expected from a trained spy.
Describing the use of bribe as
"a more ethical option than killing a militant" is something Kashmiri
politicians will debate for long while trashing Dulat's disclosures
publicly yet privately blaming each other for proximity to Delhi's chief
cashier who claims money was doled out to all right since the days of
the legendary Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah.
One fact that is known is
that New Delhi pays for treatment of senior separatist leaders and
nobody has rebutted Dulat on this so far.
That Hizbul Mujahideen
chief Syed Salahuddin's son, who is bright academically, made it to the
MBBS course through open merit competition is also known to all in
Kashmir. Yes, Salahuddin must have been concerned about his son being
allotted a medical college in Jammu, but that he directly approached
IB's joint director in Srinagar for a change has been denied by the
Hizbul chief.
It now remains Dulat's word against Salahuddin but
what has seriously jolted everybody here is that Vajpayee did not favour
Mufti Sayeed as chief minister in 2002.
It is widely believed in
the state's public and political circles that not only had the Mufti
been Vajpayee's hot favourite in 2002 and even thereafter, but the PDP's
entire healing touch policy of the PDP owes itself to his doctrine of
"Insaaniyat, Kashmiriyat aur Jamhooriyat".
In fact, Sayeed has
been repeating himself that the only way forward in Kashmir is through
implementation of Vajpayee's vision, as Dulat admitted on a TV talk show
on Saturday.
Presuming that he would continue to champion
Vajpayee's statesmanship on Kashmir because he doesn't know that he
opposed his chief ministership and blamed his daughter of proximity to
separatist gunmen would be saying that the wily, old Mufti is political
naive - a stand Dulat will find impossible to sell.
What is
intriguing is not that the separatist leaders' air tickets and hotel
rooms in Delhi and outside were paid by the IB, but the fact that they
shared things against each other with New Delhi's spies.
Even
more intriguing is the fact that while the poor stone-pelting protesters
and policemen and paramilitary personnel have been sending each other
to hospitals with grievous and often fatal injuries, the separatists
have been feasting with officials of the Indian intelligence agencies.
This
is one revelation that has already created a stir and Dulat may be the
only former top spy who seems to be on the job even after retirement.
(Sheikh
Qayoom is the IANS correspondent in Kashmir. The views expressed are
personal. He can be contacted at [email protected])
