How AS Dulat's memoir on Kashmir reveals dirt behind diplomacy
How bad could porn be for a traditionally orthodox country like ours when a memoir exposes, in depth, the compromising positions of the who's who of diplomacy putting Kashmir at stake? Former chief of the Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW) AS Dulat's recent memoir, Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years - flooded with purported revelations about militants, separatists and some pro-India politicians of Kashmir - raises such queries.
Having come from spying genius, the book is the talk of the town, at least in restive Jammu and Kashmir, where the trend of educated youth taking to arms has been termed worrisome by New Delhi. From pastime Nukads and intellectual forums to newspapers columns and social media, every circle looks Dulatised.
Not essentially for any surprising revelation he made, but more so because the memoir puts a seal on the backroom theories on sell outs and buy outs: be it bribing militants, taming separatists or game changers in the mainstream, all pre-programmed to meet "national interests".
This endorsement of worthy anecdotes by the widely-known Indian intelligence operative, who played a marathon Kashmir innings as station head for the Intelligence Bureau, makes the memoir a goldmine of news. But a reader's time is precious. So let's get to the crux.
In his book and beyond, Dulat says Indian intelligence agencies regularly pay terrorists, Hurriyat leaders and mainstream Jammu and Kashmir political parties, including the National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
He goes on to say that Pakistan-based Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salah-Ud-Din was obliged when he called the IB chief in Srinagar seeking admission for his son to a Kashmir medical college during Farooq Abdullah's tenure (1996-2002) as chief minister. The cross-LoC orders were executed on the Indian soil, hinting that more than democracy or bureaucracy, militantocracy works.
Dulat claims slain separatist leader and Peoples Conference chairman Abdul Gani Lone had agreed to offer his support in the 2002 Assembly elections. Referring to Lone's two sons, Dulat writes that after Lone's death, the family decided that Bilal would be in the Hurriyat while Sajad would stay out and take care of the party. "Lone had decided that Sajad would carry his legacy forward. He would hint at this and say, 'You guys should look after him'," Dulat writes.
The retired spymaster also portrays Mufti Mohammad Sayeed as being close to Syed Ali Shah Geelani and the former's alma mater Jamaat-e-Islami, and Mufti's daughter and PDP chief Mehbooba of having had links with Hizbul Mujahideen, something which many in Kashmir allegedly knew. Dulat, by and large, confirms what was known. But such conformity, it is feared, can fuel unrest in the minds of the Valley youth, who are fed up with the prevalent system.
Unlike in the past, reading such explosive stuff isn't that expensive today. Social networks serve it in nuggets. So when knowing things is secrecy, secrecy demands a doubly-sure bond. But Dulat has gone for the opposite.
Back channel diplomacies always work, but exposing its sensitive anatomy for a trouble-torn place like Kashmir amounts to almost writing porn, which orthodox India still can't afford to glamorise. If Dulat's Vajpayee Years is to be believed, he caught everyone in Kashmir in a compromising position, only to recapitulate their nude postures, all stripped, in his memoir.
Call it fate or coincidence, but the BJP-led Union government allowed the book to release at a time when Kashmir has again reached a critical juncture, with the home ministry acknowleding the alarming trend of religious indoctrination among the youth. Ahead of the book's release, the home ministry took serious note of the possibility of the state youth getting attracted to the lure of the ISIS, whose flags are frequently waved in the Valley.
The Jammu and Kashmir police, on the other hand, recently acknowledged that local militants have outnumbered their foreign counterparts - a first in around a decade. According to a police census, 33 new recruits joined militant ranks in the first six months of 2015. The police census puts militant strength at 142 - 88 of them locals and 54 others foreign nationals.
While the police said around 50 youth went missing in Kashmir this year to join militant ranks, a bigger expose surfaced on July 21 when media reports revealed that at least 22 students from Army Goodwill School, Badkoot in north Kashmir's Handwara town tried to cross the Line of Control (LoC). The Indian Army, however, denies the reports.
But exactly a day before this headline-hogging expose, General Officer Commanding In Chief, Northern Command, Lt Gen D S Hooda remained conspicuous for voicing concern over the recruitment of educated Kashmiri youth to militant outfits. He said the state could not turn a blind eye to the "tragedy" that "alienation and lack of opportunities" were driving the youth to take up arms. Hooda said the Centre and the state government need to "introspect" to address these issues.
If the government speaks of de-indoctrination efforts, whom will the target audience trust and why? Distrust, it is feared, could overshadow every reconciliatory effort, even if it comes from a clean heart. Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years has left a shadow over every human's character in the conflict-zone.
A militant will fear getting bribed, only to be stripped someday. A separatist leader will think if "Traitor" would replace "Martyr" on his celebrated tombstone a decade after his death. A mainstream politician will be worried about his daughter's dignity being stirred in cocktail discussions. And the scholarly youth, already taking to arms, will not only find the book informative but also educative.
After having kept secrets all his life, a former espio-crat now speaks his heart out.