Jadhav's execution | Put international pressure on Pakistan, urge experts

Even as External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj warned Pakistan to “consider the consequences” of executing former Indian Navy official Kulbhushan Jadhav, experts in India have stated that Delhi needs to use diplomatic leverage in world capitals to exert pressure on Islamabad.

While senior Congress leader and former UN diplomat Shashi Tharoor argued for reaching out to the international community and particularly to those who are the “pay masters” of Pakistan in the West to save the life of Jadhav, former additional secretary at the External Affairs Ministry KC Singh called for conveying a message through back channels, rather than issuing open threats.  “Great powers don’t issue open threats, nor do they beg for mercy, but send subtle messages to make the erring fall in line,” he said, adding that the next few days would be crucial to see just how India plays its cards.

Tharoor, who at the request of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, is authoring a resolution to be adopted by both Houses of Parliament on Wednesday on the sentencing of Jadhav, said it was time to send a tough message to Pakistan. But both he and Singh asked the government why was the issue of Pakistan not allowing consular access to Jadhav raised, despite India making such a request at least 13 times. 

Tharoor added that the government didn't have a concrete strategy to deal with Pakistan on this issue, and that the Pakistan military court’s decision had caught everybody by surprise.  Denouncing Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif’s remarks, Tharoor said that his remarks were tragic and the act of sentencing Jadhav to death was in “violation of Vienna Convention and the Geneva Convention. We have to drum up support from the international community as it is an assault on the international law, too.”

Asked as to how the judicial process in Pakistan will proceed with respect to the possible execution of Jadhav, former High Commissioner G Parthasarthy believed that the issue of Jadhav will linger on for some time. “It will go to the appellate court and then to the President of Pakistan and will continue to remain a diplomatic sore,” he said.

Parthasarthy added that he feels the President of Pakistan, though a civilian ruler and working on the advice of the Prime Minister, will not ignore advice from the Army in this case.

As far as Islamabad’s reaction was concerned, Singh said it was still not clear why Pakistan had precipitated this crisis. He believed that there must have been some tipping point which could have been the situation in the Kashmir Valley or the mysterious disappearance of their retired Pakistan Army officer from Nepal recently.  

The officer, identified as retired Lt Col Mohammad Habib, has been untraceable since April 6 from Lumbini, a Nepalese town near the Indian border and a Buddhist pilgrimage site, soon after his arrival there. His family alleged that he may have been abducted by Indian spy agency RAW.

Speaking about sending a subtle message, Singh also recalled that the late PM Indira Gandhi, who, in 1984 was frustrated at the frequent hijacking of Indian planes by Punjab militants to Lahore, sent foreign secretary MK Rasgotra to deliver a message to then Pakistan President General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. Between September 1981 to August 1984, four Indian planes had been hijacked and taken to Lahore.

Rasgotra recalled that when he raised the issue, then Pakistan President had told him that security at Srinagar Airport was “inadequate”, thus attempting to push the blame on India. “At the insistence of Mrs Gandhi, I conveyed to him that security at Lahore and Karachi was also inadequate,” the former foreign secretary recalled, adding that the message of possible retaliation was understood and hijacking of planes abruptly stopped. 

Later, two Indian planes were hijacked in 1993 and the last infamous incident of IC 814 in 1999.