Espionage, power politics and legal ‘Laxman Rekha’

‘A.S. Dulat has always been known for all the wrong reasons in the country, especially his soft outlook towards terrorists’.

 

NEW DELHI: For a top former Intelligence chief, was it just an attraction for Rahul Gandhi yatra or a well-planned programme of the close circle of national-international lobbies and at the same time launching a controversial book “A Life in the Shadows” by A.S. Dulat? Also, questions arise that the book was published without any clearance from the competent authority as prescribed in recent legal rules for senior retired government officials, especially in security services. In June 2021, the central government amended the pension rules for civil servants, prohibiting retired officials in intelligence or security-related organisations from publishing any information about their organisation without clearance from the competent authority. This includes any material relating to and including the “domain of the organisation, including any reference or information about any personnel and his designation, and expertise or knowledge gained by virtue of working in that organisation”; and “sensitive information, the disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, or relation with a foreign State, or which would lead to incitement of an offence”. On this issue, widely experienced former bureaucrat Dulat says that he was not aware of any such rule and nobody informed him. Anyway, it’s a problem for the government and his legal team. For long, he has had very strong connections in political, legal, and judicial circles.
It was not a surprise for journalists like us to see on Tuesday, 3 January, A.S. Dulat and Rahul Gandhi were seen holding hands as they walked alongside each other in his Bharat Jodo Yatra after the Christmas holidays. Dulat was always close to Congress leaders since he joined the Indian Police service and intelligence work. In Intelligence Bureau (IB) & Research Analysis wing (RAW), he developed very close connections (according to his book “close friendship”) with Pakistani intelligence Service (ISI) officials, generals and separatists of Kashmir valley. He also kept good relations with some senior people of other foreign Intelligence agencies, including CIA. Interestingly, in his recent book also, he provided details of his fondness for the Gandhi family, Farooq Abdulah, Arjun Singh, Gyani Zail Singh, Kamal Nath, Rajesh Pilot, Madhavrao Scindia, Digvijaya Singh etc. With Gyani Zail Singh, he was very happy and enjoyed a lot during his foreign trips. But when he named another colleague as a friend of all and friendship binding with nobody, the same did not apply to him. If a claim of the same community was he was close to Zail Singh, how can he be close to Rajiv Gandhi’s family if he was so much admirer of Arjun Singh and his son, how he can be friends with Madhavrao Scindia? Even Rajesh Pilot and Scindia were political rivals. He talked about V.C. Shukla and Arjun Singh’s meetings with Zail Singh. They were also very bitter with each other. Certainly, Shukla was very close to Zail Singh. In one meeting in my presence with V.C. Shukla Zail Singh asked him to bring about 50 signatures of rebel Congress members of Parliament and he will dismiss Rajiv Gandhi and can appoint Shukla as Prime Minister. It was not possible anyway.
However, he also worked during the Vajpayee regime from 1999 to 2004 as chief of RAW and later as advisor to the Prime Minister. The earlier book “Kashmir: The Vajpayee years” devoted his good and bad experiences with BJP leaders and main security advisor Brajesh Mishra and IB chief Ajit Doval, present security advisor to the Prime Minister. In all books, he very Smuch emphasizes better relations with Pakistan, dialogues with separatists and for Kashmir only Farooq Sahib. According to him, only this combination can solve Kashmir’s problem.
It is worth noting that A.S. Dulat has always been known for all the wrong reasons in the country, especially his soft outlook towards terrorists which helped dreaded terrorists and Hizbul Mujahideen Chief Syed Salahuddin’s son get a medical

seat in Srinagar. He has often supported and furthered Congress’ anti-BJP and pro-Pakistani propaganda. Recently, A.S. Dulat whitewashed the genocide and exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley, stating that the popular perception of the migration of Kashmiri Hindus differed from reality. Following the Balakot airstrikes in 2019, A.S. Dulat, like his friends in the Congress, blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government for “milking” the situation rather than applauding the government for taking stringent action against terrorists coming from Pakistan. Back in 2015, Dulat fuelled the Opposition propaganda on the Kandahar hijacking of IC-814 in 1999, which led to the release of three terrorists, including JeM chief Masood Azhar, alleging that it was a “goof up” on India’s part not to have immobilised the aeroplane when it was grounded in Amritsar. He is an admirer of Gandhi and Farooq’s family and now joined Rahul Gandhi’s yatra. In his books, why did he not talk about Narsingh Rao and Chandraswami? As a senior officer in IB, he must have followed the Chandraswami conspiracy activities against Rajiv Gandhi. After Rajiv Gandhi, Rajesh Pilot was also very much against Chandraswami. Dulat portrayed Farooq Abdullah as a God figure of Kashmir and did not talk of even serious allegations of corruption and misdeeds during his rule in J&K. He just blamed other leaders and the present government. In social media, some people raise the possibility of his joining party politics. But he mentioned in his book that he was very keen to go to J&K as Governor during the Vajpayee regime. At that time, it was very much in the news. The present BJP government doesn’t care for him. So he can have every reason to dream of a change of government and again get some important chair in future.
The writer is the Editorial Director of ITV Network India News & Daily Aaj Samaj.