Geopolitics

Let’s Not Read the Lines, Let read in-between Them
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Issue Net Edition | Date : 06 Apr , 2019

As the International Court of Justice (ICJ) out rightly refused to accept the so-called confession video of Kulbhushan Jadhav as evidence, India isn’t leaving any stone unturned to secure the safety and life of the man who Pakistan feels is their trump card to an international diplomatic triumph. Their military court have accorded Jadhav a death sentence who according to them — is an Indian spy from RAW and has been instrumental in raising funds for Baloch based terror outfits and, at the behest of India has orchestrated a slew of terror attacks in the region.

The video is available for the whole world to watch. There are pertinent reasons behind the fact why such videos are unacceptable and “null and void” in the courts of law. To begin with, a confessional video will never be shot in a non-linear way, the way the Pakistanis have created it. Almost after every sentence, there is a cut, then close-ups of Jadhav smiling and appearing to talk to someone who is standing behind the camera coaxing him into something unusual.

The video begins with a long shot — this maybe because they wanted to highlight the credits on the video’s footer (a made in Pak tag) in this case. The intermittent cuts; that we’ve also seen in Wing Commander Abhinandan’s videos rob the visuals of authenticity. So, Pakistan’s neurotic anathema called India has caught it yet once again on the wrong foot. Talk of how linear and straight thinking can benefit a country who not just seem internally torn apart, but now are also fast loosing the bit of international credibility they possessed.

Prime Minister Imran Khan is on a damage recovery mission and is appealing to Islamic nations to help him out of his turmoil. In a country that has been marred by dictatorial leaderships, a democratically elected Khan has enemies to deal with in his own homeland. He is aware that there are larger forces at work and without appeasing them; he himself can’t even survive in Pakistan, leave alone doing his Prime Ministerial duties. Iran has vested interests in the conquest over Balochistan for the region’s abundance of natural resources. If the people want autonomy, it must be accorded to them and both Iran and Pakistan need to find ways to bring people together — not antagonize them. When people of certain ethnic groups feel unsafe there, the international community too ought to take cognizance of the situation before it gets any worse.

A large number of people from the Shia community have been forced to abandon their homes and livelihood to save their lives. Coming to Pakistan’s “Jadhav is a RAW spy for sure” narrative, the entire fiasco has been deservedly been ignored by India. The present Chief of RAW, Kuldeep Sood had told the Indian media earlier this year— “A RAW agent never gets caught with his or her passport, they’ve got it completely wrong.” India has made it clear in the ICJ that Pakistan have failed to provide any credible evidence about Jadhav so far, except for that video.

Harish Salve, the lawyer, who is representing India in this case has stated that apart from a handful of articles published by India’s Press, Pakistan is time and again failing to produce even an iota of evidence that can be deemed authentic. The FIR filed in Pakistan is full of baseless allegations that do not measure up for a logical argument. So, what is holding back Pakistan from sharing a copy of the judgment based on which they’ve convicted Jadhav? There claims that their national security would get compromised if they were to share the same appears as yet another lame excuse in its scheme of delay tactics. Pakistan must first accept that they, with the connivance of Iran, designated Jaish-ul-Adl (a group which works in tandem with Al-Qaeda) mastermind, Mullah Omar to kidnap Jadhav. Unfortunate that during the case’ hearing at ICJ, the lawyer representing Pakistan had a sudden cardiac arrest. The Court is yet to permit Pakistan to appoint another lawyer. It’s strange that when it’s time to unfold the truth, they are looking completely perplexed.

India has stated time and again that Jadhav is a respectable citizen of India and an ex-naval officer; there’s nothing surreptitious about it. So, now that his nationality is confirmed, India has not only asked for immediate access to Jadhav but also of the ten other prisoners who are Indian nationals languishing in their prisons without substantiated charges. Among these men are a few fishermen and keeping them behind bars, just on the basis of suspicion for so long is simply unacceptable. Recent News reports cite that India’s MEA has written to Islamabad to initiate the process of granting visas to the team of medical experts who propose to go there to evaluate the mental condition of Indian prisoners who’ve been said to be mentally unstable and are held captive in various Pakistan jails.

The families of Kulbhushan Jadhav and other prisoners would sure be anxious, but India is now galloping on the course to secure the freedom of these men; who have been falsely implicated as being part of subversive activities and espionage. Pakistan has exhausted its political and judicial options and has to decide that if they going to act now or else it must be prepared to take the Indian umbrage. There’s no denying the fact that we have had undercover officers who have worked behind enemy lines like Kashmir Singh, Mohanlal Bhaskar, Ravindra Kaushik, Sehmat Khan and the inimitable Ajit Doval. Their heroics inspire fiction writers and filmmakers, and it’s for the world to see how they caused the enemy irreparable grief. In Jadhav’s case, the best approach would to be adhere to standard protocol and stop the propagandistic discourse, its’ proved futile for them now and won’t yield them anything even ahead.   

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The views expressed are of the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions or policies of the Indian Defence Review.

About the Author

Shaumik Samar Ghosh

Shaumik Ghosh,has been working with the media as a journalist and writer since the last 12 years.

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