'To handle Kashmir... one needs empathy'

Dulat said that Pakistan would never understand Kashmir. “Kashmir is a part of India, it is part of us, and we deal with them on a daily basis,” the former RAW head said

Veena G | NT

Bengaluru: The former head of India’s premier foreign intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) A S Dulat minces no words when he talks about his different way of looking at Kashmir than the current National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval.

At a programme hosted by Bangalore International Center (BIC) to discuss his book ‘A Life in the Shadows: A Memoir’ and responding to journalist Aakar Patel’s probing questions on the issue of intelligence, Kashmir and other personal anecdotes, Dulat said he spoke to Ajit Doval like a friend. Dulat said he and Ajit Doval had different views on how to handle Kashmir. He said that while Mr Doval had the patience to understand Kashmir, he had never devoted himself to that, it also required empathy.

Stressing the need for giving equal importance to counterintelligence as the government does to counter-terrorism, the former RAW chief said, “When a country does not focus on counterintelligence, we will not know how much influence other nations have on the country.”

He explains that this is because we are not giving much importance to counterintelligence as we do to counter-terrorism. He feels that this shift of focus should not happen at the cost of counterintelligence. He said that the Pakistan intelligence agency ISI got into terrorism and strategically this affected both Punjab and Kashmir. He said that Pakistan would never understand Kashmir.

“Kashmir is a part of India, it is part of us, and we deal with them on a daily basis.” Aakar Patel who engaged in a lively dialogue about the former's book ‘A Life in the Shadows: A Memoir’ asked about Dulat’s personal life.

When asked what made him choose to join the police department and eventually, IB, he admitted that it was not by choice. “I just appeared for the Civil Services Exam. Frankly, I was aiming for foreign service. The second choice would be IAS. I didn’t make either of those.” He took what was on the table, i.e. IPS.

Dulat then presented a picture of the atmosphere in the IB offices in Kashmir during his tenure in the RAW in JK. There were 30 to 40 officers, locals - Kashmiri Pandits who were best informed, and there were no Muslim officers. As he has been in the past, he was also outspoken about the fact that India has been reluctant to engage its own minority population in intelligence services.

Speaking on similar lines, the former RAW chief further said that there had always been reluctance among the officers to engage with somebody who might be a double agent or a Pakistani spy. “It is in our mindset,” he said. “Anyone who has anything to do with Pakistan cannot be trusted.” This, however, is not bigotry, he said, but a lack of confidence.