CHRISTMAS DAY CHARADE BY ISI

Pakistan has again confirmed, that is, if such a confirmation was needed, that it is an uncivilised, inhuman State. The ugly charade it staged to orchestrate a false narrative that it had allowed the mother and wife of Kulbhushan Jadhav only exposed its lack of manners in conducting international affairs. Let us not delude ourselves that Pakistan was motivated by any humanitarian concerns in agreeing to allow Jadhav’s mother and wife to meet him. The ploy was meant to notionally counter the Indian charge that Pakistan had failed to fulfill even the minimum conditions under the Vienna convention. The case before the International Court of Justice in The Hague is still pending. The ICJ had stayed the execution of Jadhav till it disposed of the case. Ten months ago, the ISI operatives had abducted Jadhav from the Iranian territory, and since then, it has gone on tom-tomming that he was a RAW agent who had master-minded several terrorist attacks in Pakistan causing several deaths. Outside the ISI-controlled Pakistan, there are few takers for such balderdash. But, this does not help rescue Jadhav from the clutches of the ISI. The grotesque crudity that informed the so-called meeting of the mother and wife with the retired naval officer on the Christmas Day – by the way, Pakistan freely kills Christians for alleged blasphemy – raised questions about the humanity of the decision-makers in the Rawalpindi GHQ. Virtually stripping them naked in order for them to wear clothes provided by the ISI, removing the wife’s bindi, removing their footwear, and keeping them for posterity – maybe for display in a nation-wide circus of its ghoulish conduct – and preventing them from speaking in their mother tongue, Marathi, and generally acting rudely and brusquely with the two much-harassed women revealed the barbaric nature of the Pakistan State. Not an ounce of human milk of kindness seems to run in the veins of the well-fed and well-cosseted generals who rule the roast in Pakistan. For some agonising moments, after the two ladies had had a sham of a meeting behind a thick glass wall and through an intercom, purposively they were left stranded outside the office of the Pakistan Foreign Ministry so that hand-picked wolves from the kept Pakistan media could abuse them further with foolish questions. Aside from the fact that the mother and wife would somehow feel reassured seeing Jadhav anyway in person, the meeting actually served no purpose. And left them bewildered by the sheer bitterness and crudity of the Pakistani establishment. One cannot imagine even in one’s wildest dreams India aping Pakistan in a similar situation. But, then, Pakistan is a terrorist State propped up by the geo-political compulsions of China and America; otherwise it would have disintegrated in many mutually hostile parts long, long ago. However, the need to somehow rescue Jadhav, would, at the minimum, require separating his fate from the tortured and tortuous course of the IndoPak relations. Maybe, a final verdict in favour of India at The Hague would pressure Pakistan to relent. Or maybe, as is being said in the authoritative circles in Delhi and Islamabad, the exchange of highprofile assets in the custody of the two nations, would help end Jadhav’s misery in an ISI safe house. It is unfortunate that sections of the Indian media are unable to rise above their obsessive hatred of the Modi Government, suggesting that Jadhav is an electoral tool for the ruling party. Maybe it is hard to prioritise national interest over domestic politics. Balochistan mischief was not done by Modi from the ramparts of the Red Fort, the Balochistan initiative was surrendered by Manmohan Singh at Sharm-elSheikh. Short human memory ought not to cause people in responsible positions to falsify facts. However, we do think that regardless of the public posturing by the ISI, Pakistan will think long and hard before doing something nasty to Jadhav. We keep our fingers firmly crossed.