ISLAMABAD – Theirs has been the most vicious of all relations — one was aformer chief of India’s RAW and the other of Pakistan’s ISI — but theircoming together in a first-of-its kind groundbreaking book of dialogueshighlights that “all hope is not lost” as far as sub-continental relationsare concerned.
Amarjit Singh Dulat, former Secretary of Research and Analysis Wing(1999-2000) and Asad Durrani, former Director General, Inter-ServicesIntelligence (1990-91), being the most unusual of counterparts as they are,could not meet in their home countries — and therefore guided byjournalist Aditya Sinha (the moderator of the dialogues in the book), theconversations took place in cities like Istanbul, Bangkok and Kathmandu.
The result? Their meetings produced a total of over 1.7 lakh words andabout half of these have made their way into “Spy Chronicles”(HarperCollins), scheduled to be launched here on Wednesday.
Their conversations, Sinha notes, primarily dealt with “subjects that havelong haunted South Asia, flashpoints that take lives regularly.” The ideabehind these dialogues was to take a deep dive into the politics of thesubcontinent, “as seen through the eyes of two spymasters.”
The conversations throw light on Kashmir, and a missed opportunity forpeace; Hafiz Saeed and 26/11; Kulbhushan Jadhav; surgical strikes; the dealfor Osama bin Laden; how the US and Russia feature in the India-Pakistanrelationship; and how terror undermines the two countries’ attempts attalks.
The book was Dulat’s idea and when the project was first mooted, Durranilaughed and said: “Even if we were to write fiction, no one would believeus.”
The former Indian spy chief refers to his Pakistani counterpart as a”friend”, noting that his straight-forwardness is striking.
“There is no bullshit; for him a spade is always a spade, which is at timesdisappointing for me. He has never hesitated to speak up or render help,”Dulat writes in praise of Durrani.
On the other hand, Durrani points out that he “was born an Indian – therewas no Pakistan then” and goes on to recall his early days when he grew upwatching Indian movies, and keenly listening to cricket commentaries on theradio.
Dulat also reveals that when Narendra Modi was preparing to take the oathof office as Prime Minister in 2014, “two notables from Srinagar” suggestedthat the then Pakistani Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif be invited as “he waskeen to come”. A senior Pakistani diplomat suggested against taking therisk because Sharif “might not be allowed to come to India”. Dulat thendialled Durrani, whose response was unequivocal – “there was no reason forNawaz Sharif not to come.” The message was then passed along.
“There was excietment in government, but the bigwigs wanted an assurancethat Mian Saheb would come if invited,” Dulat reveals.
In the opening chapters, the two spymasters dwell on the relveance of thebook , speakign about their respective backgrounds as professionalintelligence officers.
The book also mentions a particlar incident of May 2015 when Dulat and hiscolleagues rescued Durrani’s son Osman who was stranded in India. “TheGeneral called me six to seven times the next day, often asking the samething….I told him… You believe in Allah and I have full faith inWaheguru, all will be well,” recalls Dulat.
And finally when Osman left Mumbai, the General called and said: “Yourfaith in Waheguru helped Osman.”
Dulat and Durrani also explore the universe of spying in the book; theydeal with the perceptions of the ISI and compare it to the RAW.
In this context, Durrani reveals that “the ISI probably learnt about” Osamabin Laden and “he was handed over to the US according to a mutually agreedprocess”. Dulat maintains that the assessment from the Indian side “is thesame. That he was handed over by Pakistan.”
The book further carries an interesting round of conversations on India’scurrent National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, whose “iron fist” attitudetowards Pakistan, according to Durrani, is a result of his experience withthe Indian High Commission in Islamabad in the 1980s.
“In Ajit Doval’s case it probably affected him in a way where he felt, ‘OhGod, this country must be dealt with an iron fist’,” Durrani notes. Dulat,on the other hand, describes Doval as “one of our outstanding operationalguys”.
“The trouble, though, with people who are so much into themselves, is thatthey’re lonesome and they stay aloof. In ‘A Legacy of Spies’ there’s arelevant line that says, the trouble with spooks is that they find itdifficult to invest in trust…Ajit is a guy who won’t trust anybody,”maintains Dulat.
On the issue of Kulbhushan Jadav, Dulat says that if he was “really a RAWspy, then it’s a pretty sloppy operation.”
Durrani on the other hand believes that the revealation about Jadhav musthave been done to counter the Indian threat after the January 2, 2016attack on the Pathankot air base.
“What was the threat,” asks Dukat.
“That India is looking for links between Pathankot and our establishment.So we came up with a counter-argument that we know you’ve been doing this(in Balochistan).”
However, both of them maintain that India and Pakistan should have beendiscreet about the matter, ensuring the exchange of spies in each other’scustody.
The book concludes with a section where both spy masters submit a roadmapfor the way forward and then discus, often argue, about the pointspresented by each other.
The book has been published by HarperCollins but it was Chiki Sarkar, thepublisher at Juggernaut Books, who suggested that it should be in adialogue form to reach a wider audience and make it an interesting read.
(Saket Suman can be contacted at saket.s@ians.in)
–IANS