dulat-s-book-stirs-up-spat-between-omar-mehbooba

As the controversy stirred by ex RAW chief AS Dulat has  reignited political rivalry between the ruling National Conference nad PDP, the leaders of  both the parties are up in arms against each other, in a bid to score political points.  The bickering is not confined to only middle and lower rung leaders in the organisational hierarchy, instead it is the top leadership of both traditioanl rivals that is engaged in  a spat , virtually at each other's throats.

 

It was none other than the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah who  took a sharp swipe at People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti for endorsing AS Dulat’s controversial new book ,The Chief Minister and the Spy, saying if she believes the book’s contents are true, she must also respond to what was written about her father, the late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, in the former RAW chief’s earlier publication. 
 

“If Mehbooba Mufti believes everything Dulat writes is true, then should we also consider what he wrote about Mufti’s father in his first book as true?” he asked. Mehbooba Mufti’s father late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was the PDP chief and J-K chief minister.

Mufti said she was not surprised by the revelations made by former Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) chief Dulat in his latest book about Farooq Abdullah privately supporting the abrogation of Article 370.

 

“If Mehbooba Mufti ji thinks that everything written by Dulat is true, then should we think of what he wrote in his first book about Mufti’s father as true too?” Abdullah told reporters here.

 

“If we consider that is true, how can Mehbooba ji make people understand? She should please answer that.” he said.
He further criticised Dulat, alleging that it is his habit to exaggerate facts to boost book sales. “With friends like this, who needs enemies?” he added.

 

Earlier, the PDP chief had said in Srinagar, “Dulat’s revelations are nothing new for me. This father-son duo (Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah) went to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 3, 2019. Farooq Sahib did not even go to Parliament on August 5, 2019. So, nothing is surprising for me.”

 

Article 370, which granted special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, was abrogated by the Centre on August 5, 2019.

Mufti also claimed that in 2014, Omar Abdullah met Union Home Amit Shah, the then senior BJP office-bearer, for government formation in Jammu and Kashmir.