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A Life in the Shadows
RAW Stories
Speakers
No Indian spymaster has written a memoir, until now. A.S. Dulat is one of India’s most successful spymasters, with his name being synonymous with the Kashmir issue. In his memoir, the ex-RAW chief breaks his silence for the first time, narrating the journey of his life from a young boy in Punjab during the 1947 Partition, to his days as a spymaster for India under the governance of A.B. Vajpayee.
The cause of much media attention, the book mentions his interactions with the National Security Advisor (NSA), Ajit Doval and his role in Operation Black Thunder, and his current opinions on the Kashmir issue. He will touch upon these topics and more whilst in conversation with Aakar Patel. The session will be followed by a Q&A with the audience.
Speakers
A S Dulat
Amarjit Singh Dulat served in the Indian Police Service (IPS) and Intelligence Bureau (IB) for almost 30 years. He went on to become the special director of the Indian Intelligence Bureau and the chief of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) from 1999 to 2000. On retirement, he was appointed advisor on Kashmir in the Prime Minister’s Office and served there from January 2001 to May 2004. The author of two bestselling books, Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years (2014) and The Spy Chronicles: R&AW, ISI and the Illusion of Peace (2018), Dulat’s views on India, Pakistan and Kashmir are well-known and sought after.
Aakar Patel
Aakar Patel is a well-known syndicated columnist who has edited English and Gujarati newspapers. He has written several books of non-fiction which include, Why I Write, a translation of Saadat Hasan Manto’s Urdu non-fiction (Tranquebar, 2014), Our Hindu Rashtra: What It Is. How We Got Here, a study of majoritarianism in India and Pakistan (Westland, 2020), The Price of the Modi Years, a history of India after 2014 (Penguin Random House, 2021) and The Anarchist Cookbook, a guide on why and how to protest (HarperCollins, 2022). Aakar Patel is Chair of Amnesty International India.
