Srinagar, April 17 -- The political discourse in Jammu and Kashmir has entered yet another phase of disillusionment. In a recent media interview tied to the release of his new bookThe Chief Minister and The Spy, former RAW chief A.S. Dulat dropped a bombshell: Farooq Abdullah, the patriarch of the National Conference (NC), had "secretly backed" the abrogation of Article 370.

It's the kind of statement that could be dismissed as political sensationalism, except Dulat backs it with detail. On page 208 of the book, he writes that Farooq told him in 2020, "Maybe the NC could even have had the proposal passed in the legislative Assembly in Jammu and Kashmir. 'We would have helped,' he told me. 'Why were we not taken into confidence?'" The pas...