Like all his earlier books, this one too is easy to read. It is almost as if Amarjit Dulat is talking to you, sitting across the table, while you listen to him. Quite clearly, The Chief Minister and the Spy: An Unlikely Friendship is more than a biography. It is a memoir wrapped in a memoir, shrouded in the intricacies of Kashmir politics, and enveloped by the tricky Srinagar-New Delhi relations from the very beginning to today. A sense of elation mixed with a sense of betrayal at different times.

Quite clearly also there is also a strong bond between Farooq Abdullah and Dulat, which has stood through all upheavals. More than that, the author has immense admiration for both Abdullah the man, and Abdullah the politician, and says so often in the book. He does describe Abdullah as the tallest politician, not only in Kashmir but also in India. Both remain amiable persons, and it was perhaps easy to develop mutual confidence during the difficult decades of the 1990s and the next decade. It has possibly grown stronger after Dulat relinquished office. And has now lasted about forty years.

Starting slowly, the book begins to cruise by chapter three on Abdullah’s removal in 1984 through...

Read more