The abrogation of Article 370 was slated for the winter of 2019, but this officer decided otherwise...
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00:00At about two o'clock in the night, intervening night of 26th and 27th June,
00:04I get a call that tomorrow morning seven o'clock there is a breakfast meeting with the Home Minister.
00:09Ma'am, this was on 26th, 27th of June, 2019.
00:34Approximately 40 days prior to abrogation of Article 370 on 5th of August, the same year.
00:40At about two o'clock in the night, intervening night of 26th and 27th June,
00:44I get a call that tomorrow morning seven o'clock there is a breakfast meeting with the Home Minister.
00:49I said, okay. Three o'clock I get another call that Home Minister wants to know that
00:53what would you like to have for the breakfast. I said, jo sab khayenge wo main bhi khaunga.
00:57They said, no, it's a one-on-one meeting and only you and the Home Minister will be there.
01:02That is when I got a little this thing. Anyway, seven o'clock went for the meeting.
01:08There was a dhokla, there was aloo ka parathas, there were all types of things.
01:12And on more serious note, then we started discussing.
01:15Home Minister had come very well prepared as to what all the questions
01:20or the answers he is looking for. He talked in great detail about if we do something,
01:24that if, that time still I was not sure, if we do something, what can happen? What can happen
01:29in the internal situation? What can happen in the security forces, some local security forces?
01:36What can happen on the line of control? What are the options with Pakistan?
01:40How the civil unrest can happen? Because if you remember, some former Chief Ministers had said,
01:45khoon ki nadiyan bhai jayenge, tarange ko kanda dene wala koi nahi hoga, mute nahi ho jayegi.
01:50So, all these issues were discussed and as to what can, and all contingencies were also discussed.
01:57What if this happens, then how will we handle it? And what is the
02:00upper level of violence which can happen? And other thing.
02:03So, finally, to cut the long story short, finally, he asked me,
02:06So, jameewari kisi ki hogi? Matlab, who is responsible if?
02:11I said, Sir, I assure you, nothing will go wrong.
02:14I said, Sir, agar itihaas likhna hai, toh kisi na kisi ko toh itihaas banana padega.
02:21You have to make history or create history to write history.
02:24After this, the preparations had to go on to maintain peace.
02:28At the same time, to maintain confidentiality of what's coming.
02:31I always say, only two and a half people in Kashmir knew what's going to happen.
02:34At one point, the discussion came out that everyone is recommending we do it in the winter
02:40months, so that the snow will be there, passes will be closed, Pakistan won't be able to do
02:45anything. I had a different take on this. My take was, if we do it in winter months,
02:51till then the confidentiality may not be maintained. So, Pakistan would come to know.
02:57Secondly, in the winter months, the three, four months as it is remain peaceful because of snow,
03:03then we will get complacent and Pakistan will get time to prepare himself.
03:09My view was, we do it earliest, have three, four months of campaigning season as we call it.
03:15If something has to go wrong, it will go wrong, then we will have three to four months of winter time.
03:20When it's hard for Pakistan.
03:21When it's hard for Pakistan to pursue with whatever they've achieved.
03:24For us to consolidate, reassess the situation and reallocate our assets.
03:30And then we come back fresh in the month of April.