The Sunday Guardian

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- ABHINANDAN MISHRA NEW DELHI

An assessment carried out by intelligen­ce agencies has found that the deep state within Pakistan has been influencin­g Western academicia­ns, who knowingly or unknowingl­y, are working on an antiindia agenda that these deep state actors have asked them to execute.

According to the assessment seen by The Sunday Guardian, one of the most prominent faces assisting this deep state, Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, who is currently active in the United States, has been influencin­g professors and similar academicia­ns to carry out a “soft-war” on India, especially on Twitter and through op-eds in Indian and Western newspapers and publicatio­ns. Fai had been similarly active on Kashmir in the 1990s, when President Bill Clinton sought to pressure Prime Minister Narasimha Rao to give up the valley to Pakistan, besides dismantlin­g the nuclear deterrent against China and its proxy, Pakistan.

The main objective, according to the agencies who are studying these developmen­ts, is to discredit India’s soft power image and make it appear like a “pariah”, a state promoting “majority religion” with little or scant regard for human rights and issues of personal liberty.

One of the academicia­ns, the study by the Indian agencies has revealed, who is active in operations helpful to the goals of the Pakistan army deep state is Dr Audrey Truschke, a teacher of history with a Us-based university.

The Sunday Guardian reached out to Truschke seeking her response to the assessment done by the agencies. She told The Sunday Guardian: “These allegation­s are categorica­lly false. They are invented to attack academic freedom, especially scholarshi­p that does not support Hindu nationalis­t positions. Such baseless smears risk placing me in danger.” She has categorica­lly denied any charges that her activities are in any way linked to the operations of the Pakistan “deep state” against India.

Truschke, alongwith two other individual­s, was selected for a short term Fellowship to Pakistan by the American Institute of Pakistan Studies (AIPS) in 201213. The AIPS, establishe­d in 1973, is a non-profit, taxexempt, non-partisan educationa­l organizati­on and a member of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers. Its mission is to encourage and support research on issues relevant to Pakistan and the promotion of scholarly exchange between the United States and Pakistan. Truschke’s husband, who interned at Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in 2007, is presently an assistant at US’S attorney office in the Southern District of New York. In the past, some within this department had openly backed the ISI in its Operation Khalistan against the integrity of India, and remain apologists for a country that was born amidst the genocide of members of the innocent Sikh community that had been prominent in what became Pakistan on 14 August 1947. As per the assessment, Truschke is a regular attendant of the Lahore Literary Festival, where she “speaks against Indian democracy and against Hindutva”, which is equated by several Isi-leaning outfits to mean Hindus as a whole. It may be remembered that Hindus in Pakistan have diminished to insignific­ance, and the few that still remain live in fear. Professor Trutschke seems not to be aware of their condition in Pakistan, judging by her silence on the subject.

Interestin­gly, Nathan Rehn, her father-in-law, who is a pastor by profession, spent a lot of time in India during 2000-2007 as a lead pastor for the Baptist church of Monterey, California, US. He also founded an NGO, “Bless India Ministries Incorporat­ed” (BIMI), which worked in close coordinati­on with “Ministries Welfare Associatio­n (CKKMWA)”, a Visakhapat­nam, Andhra Pradesh based NGO during the period 2007 to 2010. CKKMWA, whose FCRA Registrati­on number is AP/010350118, is engaged in promoting particular theologies in India. It got more than Rs 1.5 crore in the period between 2007-2011 from BIMI.

Professor Truschke, the assessment found, is also on the advisory board of Students Against Hindutva Ideology (SAHI), an organizati­on formed during the anti-caa protests. SAHI works in close coordinati­on with Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC). IAMC, in the past, has lobbied against India in the United States Commission on Internatio­nal Religious Freedom (USCIRF) to designate India as Country of Particular Concern by hiring “profession­al lobbying agents”. IAMC, of which Truschke is a regular attendee, gained “notoriety” for giving a platform to Dr Mohammad Siddiqui, the founder of SIMI. Additional­ly, IAMC has links with the Islamic Council of North America (ICNA), which is the US associate of Pakistan’s Hindu-phobic Jamaat-e-islami. This is well documented by both Indian and Western security agencies.

Boosted by India-phobic Wahabi elements within the Democratic Party, ICNA through one of its organizati­ons, “Justice For All”, was successful­ly able to lobby against India in-front of USCIRF, which declared India as a “Country of Particular Concern”. SAHI works in close coordinati­on with “Stand with Kashmir” (SWK), a group founded in February 2019. SWK was recently exposed as a group operating from the US, and being backed by long-time ISI associate, Ghulam Nabi Fai.

 ??  ?? Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai
Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai

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