Ex-spy chief’s memoir raises questions

Two matters of not a little import seem to have lately gained traction in discussions — in political and in security circles — following the recent publication of the memoirs of A.S. Dulat, who served as chief of R&AW, the country’s external intelligence agency, in the time of Prime Minister Vajpayee, and on retirement was invited to join the Vajpayee PMO to contribute to the Kashmir question, with which Mr Dulat was associated for long. Of the two, the question of wider public discussion is the overtly political one — namely the cause of the defeat of the Vajpayee-led NDA in the 2004 general election against the run of play, so to speak.

According to Mr Dulat, when he asked the outgoing PM what explained the poll outcome, Mr Vajpayee just said that he had blundered in Gujarat. The writer fairly inferred this meant the PM’s inability to swiftly put an end to the communal violence in the state in 2002 (when Mr Narendra Modi was Chief Minister).  The observation naturally lends itself to two separate interpretations: one, the question why the PM did not get the CM sacked (although he is believed to have considered the option but Mr Modi was saved by Mr L.K. Advani, who argued for giving the CM a longer rope); and two, that the present Prime Minister’s actions in his earlier avatar caused the defeat of the BJP in 2004 although it was led by a most popular leader.

While elections do not necessarily turn on a single issue, it was indeed the perception at that time that Muslims had totally avoided the BJP, thanks to the violence of 2002, although Mr Vajpayee had attracted minorities in 1998.

The revival of this sentiment on the eve of the Assembly election in Bihar can conceivably colour BJP’s prospects in Bihar. It is also not unlikely that it can fuel factionalism within the ruling party and boost the moderates. The second controversial question concerns negotiating with terrorists. The writer considers the hijack of IC-814 to Kandahar during Mr Vajpayee’s tenure, and the earlier case of the kidnapping of the daughter of Mufti Muhammad Sayeed when he was Union home minister. The former spook does not argue against talks and says even the Israelis do it. However, in a TV interview, he has noted that the Vajpayee government “goofed” in not storming the plane when there was a chance in Amritsar. This may be a professional’s perspective, but in hindsight the Vajpayee government was right in not exposing Indian hostages to risk.