New spat
Even the best intentions don’t always seem to deliver the desired
results where Pakistan-India relations are concerned. At present, these
relations seem frozen, with the revival of the suspended composite dialogue
nowhere in sight. In the midst of these tensions, Pakistan’s humanitarian
gesture of allowing Kulbushan Jadhav’s wife and mother to meet him seems to
have backfired and set off a fresh round of Indian charges against the
Pakistani authorities. India has accused Pakistan of violating the agreed
ground rules for the meeting. Four violations of these agreed rules have been
cited by India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA): prohibiting Jadhav’s
family from conversing with him in their native Marathi, making the two women
change their attire and remove religious symbols; preventing the Indian Deputy
High Commissioner from observing the meeting, and permitting the media to
harass and hector the two women. The MEA statement deplored that the meeting
was held in an intimidating atmosphere that lacked credibility. Pakistan’s
Foreign Office (FO) in response has denied the allegations as baseless and
twisted, and which emerged 24 hours after the meeting when the two women had
returned to India and had a meeting with MEA officials. The FO said it did not
want to indulge in a meaningless battle of words on the issue. It said if the
Indian concerns were serious, the guests or the Indian diplomat could have
raised these in front of the media, which was readily available but at a safe
distance, as requested by India. The controversy was exacerbated by Mrs
Chetankul Jadhav’s shoes being confiscated by the authorities on suspicion
there was some metal detected in them. India has also raised objections to her bindi (traditional coloured mark on the
forehead) and mangal sutra (marriage
necklace) being removed. In so far as forbidding conversation in Marathi is
concerned, it negates the charge that the exchange was being recorded, since,
in that case, the Pakistani authorities could have had the Marathi translated
later.
To be fair, the Pakistani authorities, despite their
goodwill humanitarian gesture in allowing Jadhav’s wife and mother to meet him,
had serious concerns surrounding the meeting. Foremost amongst these was the
possibility of something being slipped to Jadhav that he might use to harm
himself. Hence the extraordinary precautions vis-à-vis what the two women wore
and carried into the meeting. Logically perhaps such extraordinary measures
relate to the mutual paranoia that grips both countries when dealing with each
other, given that the meeting took place through a glass partition, thereby
avoiding any physical contact. Such an arrangement is not unusual for high
profile prisoners, especially someone like Jadhav who is under sentence of death
from a military court as a spy. Perhaps if the Pakistani authorities had spelt
out to the other side the details of the arrangements, this last minute
unpleasantness that spoilt a goodwill moment could have been avoided. The role
of the media in both countries cannot be allowed to pass without comment. If we
have complaints about our media trumpeting all too often the officially certified
truth, the Indian media is arguably worse. The latter seems motivated by and
large by extreme nationalism, which has reached fever pitch since Mr Modi’s ascent
to power in 2014. Be that as it may, it nevertheless behoves us to restrain
ourselves from the temptation to answer in the same vein, since rational
discourse and the desire to proceed towards dialogue and normalisation of
relations are badly affected by loud diatribes from either side against the
other. The fraught nature of relations is underlined by reports of fresh
clashes and casualties on the Line of Control, whose tenuous 2003 ceasefire is
by now in tatters. And in case anyone is wondering, it is not only the media
that is the culprit but also the national narrative in both countries that is
unhelpful. Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, no mean protagonist
herself in this regard, was discomfited in the Indian parliament by the
strident grilling at the hands of MPs baying for blood. Sadly, it appears
Pakistan and India cannot even handle humanitarian issues and considerations in
a cool, calm, rational, mature manner in the presence of the mutual hatreds
that have sullied the air even more in recent years.
No comments:
Post a Comment