Barkha Dutt, a journalist from India, the country where Afzal Guru was hanged just to satisfy the collective conscience of the Indian society. Burkha Dutt tried to lecture us with her article in New York Times, on the conviction of terrorist Kalbhushan Yadav by portraying that his conviction has been the result of rift between military and civil establishment of Pakistan but she forgot that the same Military Courts that sentenced Kalbshushan Yadav to death for espionage, sabotage and operating a terrorist ring in Pakistan, were first introduced and then reinstated by the National Parliament of Pakistan for two years in March-2017, where not only the ruling party PML-N but all the other major political parties of Pakistan agreed that the Military Courts are necessary to deal with the extraordinary level of terrorism in the country.
Indian media and analysts came up with dozens of theories after the arrest of Indian spy Kabhushan Yadav. First Indian media tried to portray that Indian RAW agent was arrested for building pressure on Iran, this blame was immediately refuted by Iran in its statement by saying that some elements spreading ‘undignified’ rumors about Indian spy to undermine Pak-Iran relations.
The official stand of the Indian government on Kalbhushan is that Kalbhushan was kidnapped from Iran, is another theory that they believe is true but neither Iran nor Pakistan buy this Indian argument on Kalbushan’s arrest. Even India also don’t seem to believe their own theory because if they were sure about this they would have launched a proper protest against Iran that their citizen has been abducted from Iranian soil. Iran and India are considered to be the close allies in the region but surprisingly Iran never aligned itself with India on their claims that Indian Spy was abducted from Iran by Pakistani agencies. It’s only India that believes in this face-saving theory.
Why India never launched a proper protest against Iran
If we go by Indian perspective, Kalbhushan’s abduction from Iran could have caused a serious diplomatic rift between India – Iran as well as between Iran – Pakistan but that never happened because neither India protested to Iran about the abduction of their citizen nor Indian media asked any Iranian diplomat that how an Indian citizen was kidnapped by Pakistani agencies from Iranian soil and why Iranian government is not doing anything about it.
The reason for not taking up this case with Iran is not mentioned in Barkha Dutt’s article and Indian claim that Kalbhushan was traveling on Indian Passport and no agent is so dumb to do this. It’s true that Kalbhushan was traveling with Indian passport but with a FAKE Muslim name ” Mubarak Hussain Patel”. Indian media will keep reminding you that he was traveling with Indian passport but neither Barkha Dutt nor Indian government or media have ever explained that why he was traveling with a fake name.
From which we can draw two conclusions that could be the reason behind Indian reluctance to protest Kalbhushan’s case in Iran. One is that if we go by Indian theory of abduction then it means that Iran was not aware of the activities of Kalbushan, Iran was kept in dark about the RAW’s activities in Iran and Iranian soil was used by RAW to run a terrorist network in Pakistan, on the other hand if it was a combined operation by India-Iran then also India can’t protest as it will put Iran in an awkward position because recently few Pakistani terrorists like Uzair Baloch were also arrested from different places with Iranian passports, Uzair Baloch also confessed that he was in contact with Kalbhushan Yadav and RAW.
The third perspective is Pakistani perspective that he was arrested from Balochistan which also suits Iran. In this perspective Iran could easily say that Kalbhushan had a business in Iran, he crossed the border but Iran was not the partner in RAWs crime and Iranian soil was never used against Pakistan. So India can’t protest to Iran because Iran never said that Kalbhushan was abducted from Iran.
Iran never requested access to Kalbhushan Yadav
Some media reports especially the Indian media reported said that Iran has requested access to Kalbhushan Yadav after India took Yadav’s case to International Court of Justice (ICJ) but Iran categorically denied all such reports and Iranian envoy to Pakistan Mr. Mehdi Honardoost said that Tehran didn’t seek request to access Kalbhushan.
On the other hand, Iran responded to the letter that Pakistan sent after the arrest of Kalbhushan Yadav requesting Iran to investigate the RAW agent’s activities in Iran and share the details of his stay in Iran. Iran investigated Indian Spy business in Chahbahar and his activities in Iran and replied back to Pakistan, the response was handed over to Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan by Iranian Ambassador Mehdi Hunerdoos on 16th of June
India – Pakistan relations after Kalbushan Yadav
Soon after the conviction of Kalbushan, Indian politicians started threatening Pakistan. Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj declared him as “Son of the Soil” and threatened Pakistan with the consequences. She said, “I would caution the Pakistani govt to consider consequences for our bilateral relationship if they proceed on this matter.” She also assured the Indian parliamentarians that, Indian Govt would go ‘all out’ to save Indian spy who has been running a RAW terrorist network in Pakistan being a serving Indian Naval officer. Another Indian Parliamentarian of BJP, Subramanian Swamy has stressed Indian Government to recognize Balochistan as an independent country if Pakistan executes the Indian spy.
Barkha Dutt also emphasized in her article that the execution of Yadav can end the backdoor efforts for India-Pakistan dialogue.
It’s quite funny that suddenly after the sentence of Yadav by military courts, India remembered the bilateral dialogue. As far as Indian government was concerned they were never interested in dialogue. All the efforts of Pakistan for dialogue were refused by saying that India is only ready to discuss terrorism with Pakistan and Pakistan always maintained the argument that Kashmir is the core issue between India and Pakistan, so Kashmir should be the issue discussed in bilateral meetings which India never accepted.
Prime Minister Nawaz Shareef clearly said to United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres at Davos while attending the world economic forum earlier this year that Pakistan invited India for talks but India did not respond. He also stressed in the same meeting that “peace in the region is in the best interest of the people of the region”.But India was never interested in peace.
The doors of dialogues were shut by India and if Kalbhushan is hanged or not it will remain closed for a long time as the only problem (Terrorism) that India wanted to discuss in these bilateral dialogues, has also been buried by Kalbhushan. The arrest of Kalbhushan and exposing of his terror network has closed the only single door left open by India. Now If Pakistan will even go by Indian perspective and start the dialogue to discuss terrorism, India will avoid that discussion because Indian monkey’s hand got stuck in a jar having a banana in his hand.
Comparing Kalbhushan with Raymond Davis
Barkha Dutt also tried to convince the readers that there are chances of the bargain by mentioning Raymond Davis. Comparing Raymond Davis with Kalbhushan is a comparison of apples and oranges. Raymond Davis killed two Pakistanis and he was spared by the relatives of those two Pakistanis by following the law of Diyat but Kalbushan confessed that he was running a terrorist network in Pakistan which may have killed hundreds of Pakistanis. So the Diyat law cannot be applied in this case as the victims are not known and the case has been prosecuted by the state. Diyat can only be applied in the case of private offense, not in crimes against society or state. So Diyat law cannot be applied on a Terrorist like Kalbhushan.
Conclusion
Kalbhushan is a history now. The sooner India accepts this reality the better it will be for India and the region. India should remember Kalbhushan as a “Son of the Soil”, caught by the enemy while he was spreading terror in the neighborhood. Hope this will satisfy the collective conscience of the Indian society but for Pakistan, he is a terrorist, he was running a terrorist network in Pakistan which killed hundreds of innocent Pakistanis and he deserves the punishment mentioned for the terrorists in the laws of the country.
Neither International Court of Justice (ICJ) nor India can save him. In 1948 India took the dispute of Kashmir to UN but after the decision made by UN in Kashmir case, India is running from UN until today and never implemented what UN said in its resolution no. 47. Same will be the result of the case of Kalbhushan Yadav in ICJ because India has to answer too many questions for which India don’t have the answers. India has been trying to find a face-saving option in this issue but as they are going further they are sinking themselves deeper in the bog.
You timid pakis just release our hero Mr. kalbhushan Yadav.You succeeded in arreesting only one RAW agent.You do not know that there are thousands in Pakistan who are behind the terrorist attacks there.I bet you can never succeed in arresting any more RAW agent.
We indian agents shall do anything for the sake of India thus it is very normal for us to give false witness against the victims whom india arrests in fake cases.