‘Pakistan’s game plan is bigger; Jadhav is just another means to achieve it’

Former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was arrested on charges of espionage in March last year, was awarded the death sentence by Pakistan after a “secret trial”. While Pakistan insists that the sentence is based on “credible” and “specific” evidence, India has condemned the death penalty as an act of “premeditated murder” and warned Pakistan of serious consequences. RAJIV DOGRA, former Indian consul-general to Karachi, speaks with Veenu Sandhu about the case. Edited excerpts: India has termed Jadhav’s trial as “farcical". What are you views? I would maintain that there was no trial at all. People think it was a trial conducted under the new dispensation given to the Pakistani army to try terrorists. That is not correct because the section they have quoted is from the British time — 1923. Even under the so-called new military powers in Pakistan for the speedy trial of terrorists by military courts, a notice that a trial has started against a particular accused is always given. In Jadhav’s case, no notice was given. No one knew that a trial had started. So obviously it was a decision taken in a hurry.

Pakistan has one law for Indians and quite another for everyone else. Shakil Afridi, the doctor arrested for links with Osama bin Laden, was tried by a sub-divisional magistrate in a civil court and kept in a civil prison in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. His crime in Pakistani eyes should have been much bigger than whatever Jadhav has been accused of. A similar case was that of Raymond Davis, a declared spy who had also killed two Pakistanis in broad daylight. He too was tried in a civilian court, was kept in a civilian prison (Kot Lakhpat) and later released on $2 million blood money. But Indians are not tried or given any consideration of law. Instead, an arbitrary law is made on the spot to punish any Indian according to the Pakistani military court judgment. Do we need to get tougher with Pakistan? They bluff and lie repeatedly and we swallow their lies. Abdul Basit (high commissioner of Pakistan to India) has been quoted saying that the Indian government knows why Jadhav has been tried in a military court and what the charges against him are. But newspapers say the Indian government has no idea where Jadhav is and why he is being held in prison. The fact is that the Pakistan government had approached the Iranian government to find out why Jadhav was operating in Iran. And now Pakistan is saying, “No, he was spying in our country.” If that was the case, then why did Pakistan reach out to Iran? We should be posing these tough questions to Pakistan.