Wajahat Habibullah was posted as an IAS Officer to the State of Jammu and Kashmir in 1969 and thus he got an inside view
of the government’s administration. Wajahat cites several incidents that underscore the constraints in which he had to work. The civil authority was helpless before the police and security personnel. When he organised national events like the Independence and the Republic Days, it became starkly clearly how people were alienated from the government He tells how the presence of
Sheikh Abdullah helped matters improve. The gang rape of 23 women in Kunan Poshipura in February 1991 was a shocking setback to Wajahat but he became an instant hero with the handling of the Hazrat Bal crisis though the army was supposedly displeased with him. The author writes about the arrest of Sheikh Abdullah in 1953 and the visit of Nehru’s confidante Lal Bahadur Shastri and his peace making efforts. The integration of the State with the Indian Union by the leftist government of Sadiq saw a Pakistan sponsored attack.
Wajahat Habibullah also airs his views on several issues on the Kashmir problem in which the non- Kashmiri speaking people had a good role to play. He welcomes Sajad Lone’s vision with its operative part being that non-Muslim region of the State would have an option opt out and the division of the State would be on religious lines. Wajahat is of the view that dictatorships and quislings are inevitable and that freedom can be achieved while retaining the territorial integrity of both India as well as Pakistan, with the present boundaries becoming soft boundaries. The moot question, however, is would this solution be acceptable to the separatist leaders? If not, then what? The author acknowledges his love for Kashmir, which, he says, was reciprocated by its people.