{"id":32336,"date":"2018-10-29T13:37:39","date_gmt":"2018-10-29T08:07:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=32336"},"modified":"2018-10-29T13:37:39","modified_gmt":"2018-10-29T08:07:39","slug":"among-the-multiple-endings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/among-the-multiple-endings\/","title":{"rendered":"Among the multiple endings\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Among the multiple endings<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Context<\/strong><\/p>\n

How Kulbhushan Jadhav\u2019s fate is tied to the state of play in India-Pakistan ties<\/p>\n

Two Years ago<\/strong><\/p>\n

The symbolism was inescapable. Two years ago, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an impromptu stop-over in Lahore to reach out to the then Pakistani Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, during the wedding of his grand-daughter, it was Christmas Day, December 25, 2015. Recall the circumstances.<\/p>\n

Back to square one<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two years later, by permitting naval commander Kulbhushan Jadhav\u2019s mother and wife to visit him in Islamabad on December 25, Pakistan\u2019s deep state was signalling that New Delhi should consider this a return gift.<\/p>\n

Message of peace torn<\/strong><\/p>\n

But that message of peace was torn to shreds in that metal container with a glass panel where India and Pakistan conducted fishbowl diplomacy<\/p>\n

Rules of engagement need to be rewritten<\/strong><\/p>\n

The rules of engagement need to be rewritten yet again, this time in a way that insulates bilateral relations from the vagaries of Pakistan\u2019s internal politics.<\/p>\n

Question<\/strong><\/p>\n

Was the outcome of Jadhav family reunion, with a disrupted conversation and the visitors\u2019 accessories confiscated, a failure of anticipation?<\/p>\n

Analysis<\/strong><\/p>\n

Consider the circumstances<\/p>\n

Downturn in relations with Pakistan<\/strong><\/p>\n

There has been a downturn in relations with Pakistan in every sphere, against the backdrop of another domestic political upheaval that dislodged Mr. Sharif from the Prime Minister\u2019s post.<\/p>\n

Misunderstandings<\/strong><\/p>\n

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj informed Parliament that what eventually happened in the Pakistan Foreign Office when Jadhav\u2019s wife and mother were allowed to briefly interact with him in highly restrictive circumstances was a \u201cdeparture from the agreed understandings between the two countries in the conduct of this meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unclear modalities<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is still not enough detail in the public domain on what exactly were these modalities and understandings that had been worked out diplomatically and how much ambiguity was inherent in the resultant format for either side to interpret<\/p>\n

Pakistani journalists allowed to badger the family<\/strong><\/p>\n

That Pakistani journalists were allowed to repeatedly attempt to badger Mr. Jadhav\u2019s wife and mother, that no communication was allowed in Marathi, their mother tongue, that the footwear Mr. Jadhav\u2019s wife was wearing was confiscated and sent for unspecified tests indicate the potential for further diplomatic mischief.<\/p>\n

Pakistan hasn\u2019t allowed consular access<\/strong><\/p>\n

But the larger point remains that Pakistan has not allowed consular access to Mr. Jadhav \u2014 that is, Indian diplomats in Islamabad have not been able to visit him in prison and record his version of how he came to be in Pakistan\u2019s custody, etc.<\/p>\n

Might be a spy, so What?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It may not come as a surprise if it turns out that Mr. Jadhav was indeed a spy, but even that needn\u2019t detain us here. Nations spy on each other.<\/p>\n

The issue here is the message that Pakistan is conveying.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bruising episode<\/strong><\/p>\n

The question is: at the end of this bruising diplomacy, who is likely to walk away smelling more of roses? And certainly, it is not clear how all this has helped Mr. Jadhav\u2019s condition or eventual fate, whatever conclusion the International Court of Justice may or may not reach<\/p>\n

Mr Jadhav unders stress and coercion<\/strong><\/p>\n

From the debriefing the Ministry of External affairs got from his mother and wife, it appeared to them that the alleged spy was \u201cunder considerable stress and was speaking in an atmosphere of coercion.\u201d Moreover, his appearance had also raised questions of his health and well-being.<\/p>\n

Way forward<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr. Jadhav may well receive a presidential pardon, and be retuned to India. There may even be a spy barter, though this occurs mostly before their cases come up for trial and rarely afterwards.<\/p>\n

The question now<\/strong><\/p>\n

So long as there are spies among us, the script has many potential endings. Which one will we eventually get to see?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Among the multiple endings\u00a0 Context How Kulbhushan Jadhav\u2019s fate is tied to the state of play in India-Pakistan ties Two Years ago The symbolism was inescapable. Two years ago, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an impromptu stop-over in Lahore to reach out to the then Pakistani Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, during the wedding of… Continue reading Among the multiple endings\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704878669},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32336\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}