India’s Forgotten Spies and Jadhav

In Blog
December 18, 2020
Humda Qamar
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The espionage case of Mr. Jadhav is an unprecedented case in the history of Pakistan and India’s bilateral relationship. The case has been covered extensively by news organizations throughout both nations. The Government of India has also actively perused the Jadhav case taking it up to even the International Court of Justice. Given the sensitivity

The espionage case of Mr. Jadhav is an unprecedented case in the history of Pakistan and India’s bilateral relationship. The case has been covered extensively by news organizations throughout both nations. The Government of India has also actively perused the Jadhav case taking it up to even the International Court of Justice. Given the sensitivity and the priority this case has received, it begs the question; is the Jadhav case more important for India? Or has there been an overall change in the handling of espionage cases in India?

India’s history with espionage cases will have to be looked at to see whether any discrepancy exists with how its treated spies in the past and how is it dealing with them presently. Evidently, when looked into the history of such matters, what is seen is that India had sent multiple spies in order to cause disturbance and leak information. For instance, the case of the spy, Ravinder Kaushik; “the black tiger”, who was imprisoned for 16 years, and went by without any recognition. Similarly, another case, which was neglected was of Sheikh Shamim, who was executed after 10 years of imprisonment in Pakistan.

In history, India’s record in securing the release of Indian detainees in Pakistan has been patchy and often unsuccessful, list of several Indian nationals accused of espionage, arrested and sentenced to death in Pakistan, India’s focus has been on securing their release through bilateral negotiations instead of knocking on the doors of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague, whose ruling is obligatory for member states. This not only exposed how the Indian administration regarded its spies as expendables once they achieve their objective, but it was considered a matter to be handled within the bilateral protocols.

Contrastingly, the case of Jadhav is seen to be addressed rather differently. Post the trial of Jadhav, India is seen relying on multiple organizations to adjudicate on what would otherwise be a bilateral matter while refusing to acknowledge and cooperate with Pakistan’s reasonable requests. The involvement of the International Court of Justice in the case is proof itself that the matter is being perused far more aggressively than it has been in the past. This can be seen as India’s attempt to try and create a new narrative of Pakistan as a rogue state on an international forum.

For instance, Jadhav was tried by the Field General Court Martial under Section 59 of the Pakistan Army Act, which makes a death sentence difficult to avoid. New Delhi, however, threatened Islamabad that if it were to go ahead with the sentencing, India would consider it a case of “premeditated murder.” This new approach of India intrigued the Pakistani media that the individual, due to being a serving official, had received a wide range of opportunities and reliefs, retrospective of the previous cases that had not. Thus, the growing interest in this case for India.

A change in policy can be observed that may be attributable to the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi. The direction the Indian administration has begun to adopt is based on an age-old but bigoted Hindutva Ideology that has led to a much more aggressive and fascist approach. For example, the protests held in regards to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 in India, disrespected the minorities; mostly Muslims. These changes in policy are observed, at large, with the relations between India and Pakistan.

What is seen today under the BJP administration is that India is becoming more Hindu-centric. It has nationalized the Indian system by gradually eradicating the democratic nature of the country. The administration focuses a great deal on imposing Hindutva practices, all of which threatens the secular fabric of the Indian Republic. The revocation of Article 370 and depriving Kashmir of its special status, for instance, can also be seen as part of the new hostile new approach of the Modi led government.

Pakistan and India have had a controversial and complex history of the relationship that has been swinging between two extreme ends of war and peace. Factually, India-Pakistan relations were not going well even before Jadhav’s arrest as India’s dialogue process with Pakistan has been stuck since the attack on the Pathankot air force base in January 2016, and the recent revocation of Article 370 from the Indian Constitution. Likewise, the espionage case of Jadhav continues to deteriorate the bilateral relationship. In addition, the current Indian administration is starting to aggressively bring “Indian spies” on Pakistani soil back home. Such as, the counsel for the Indian High Commission whilst handling the case of Jadhav, added their interest in the release of Muhammad Ismail, another Indian spy who was captured. This uproots the idea that India under Modi led government, India will try its utmost to get its demands fulfilled, whether be it through deteriorating the bilateral relations that are already at a decline, or by approaching International organizations.

Conclusively, in a time as sensitive as this, the arrest and confession by Indian spy Jadhav is of utmost importance for Pakistan, as it has enabled the country to show the world that Pakistan is a victim of Indian inflicted terrorism. While this is seen as a new low for the bilateral relations between India Pakistan, the Kulbhushan Jadhav case goes on to show that the government of India is growing more aggressive and hostile by the passing moment that may result in eradicating the chance of betterment between the two countries.