Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah Wednesday reacted angrily to claims of former R&AW chief A S Dulat that he had "privately backed" the Article 370 abrogation, and accused him of "cheap stunts" to boost the sales of his forthcoming book.
Dismissing Dulat's claims that the National Conference (NC) would have "helped" pass the proposal to abrogate the special status of the erstwhile state had it been taken into confidence, Abdullah, the 87-year-old president of the party, said this was a "figment of imagination" of the author.
Dulat's book 'The Chief Minister and the Spy' is slated for release on April 18. Abdullah pointed out that both he and his son, Omar Abdullah, had been put under arrest for several months at the time of the abrogation of Article 370 on August 5, 2019.
"We were detained because our stand against the abrogation of special status was well-known," he told PTI. He said that he had taken 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 defend the special status of the state. Abdullah ridiculed Dulat's claim that the NC would have got a resolution passed in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly for the abrogation of Article 370. -- PTI
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