'Cheap stunt': Farooq Abdullah rejects AS Dulat's 'privately backed Article 370' allegation

National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah on Wednesday slammed former R&AW chief A S Dulat for his claim that the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister had "privately backed" the Article 370 abrogation.

Abdullah said that the claim was a part of Dulat's "cheap stunts" to boost the sales of his forthcoming book.

The NC chief dismissed Dulat's claims that the party would have "helped" pass the proposal to abrogate the special status of the erstwhile state had it been taken into confidence. He termed this a "figment of imagination" of the author.

"We were detained because our stand against the abrogation of special status was well-known," Abdullah told PTI.

Dulat is coming out with a new book on April 18, titled ‘The Chief Minister and the Spy’.

The 87-year-old said that he always defended the special status of the erstwhile state, pointing out that he took the initiative to bring together all major political forces in Jammu and Kashmir and formed the People's Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), a coalition of political parties to do the same.

"A benchmark of common sense should have been adopted by the author while penning the so-called memoirs. He should have remembered that there was no assembly in 2018, which could have been dissolved," Abdullah said.

Abdullah insisted that even if the assembly had been in session, he would have never considered passing any resolution to the effect of abrogating Article 370.

Farooq Abdullah says AS Dulat’s book ‘full of inaccuracies’

Farooq Abdullah gave his judgment on the upcoming book, saying that it was full of inaccuracies.

"It is full of inaccuracies that, after a while, I thought I was reading fiction and left it," the NC President said.

The former chief minister also referenced a specific error where AS Dulat claimed to have advised him against having a large Cabinet in 1996, to say that 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 author'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 mind, and I only decide. I am not anyone's puppet," he asserted.

Regarding Dulat's claim that the NC wanted closer relations with the BJP, Abdullah strongly denied it.

"Dulat's claim that the National Conference wanted to get close to the BJP is an absolute lie as I am not the one who will patch up with a party that is out and out to destroy my party."

Abdullah expressed disappointment with Dulat's actions and said that his inaccuracies, just for cheap publicity, would last a lifetime now.