The Big Story: Lies & videotape

The Pakistan Army on Thursday released a fresh video of Kulbhushan Jadhav, the former Indian Naval officer who was given a death sentence in Pakistan on allegations of being a spy, and claimed that one mercy plea filed by him has already been rejected. In a statement, the Pakistan Army said Jadhav had “admitted to his involvement in espionage, terrorist and subversive activities in Pakistan,” and was asking for forgiveness. It also claimed that he had filed two mercy petitions, following his death sentence, one of which has already been rejected. The other is now pending with Pakistan’s Army Chief General Raheel Sharif, and he can still petition the President afterwards.

Jadhav was arrested in Pakistan in March 2016, with Pakistani authorities claiming he had entered the country from the Iran border to carry out espionage and foment unrest in Balochistan. India has refuted claims that Jadhav is a spy and has, instead, insisted that Pakistan has been denying him legal and consular rights by refusing to let Indian representatives meet him. Last month, the International Court of Justice ordered Pakistan not to execute Jadhavuntil it had fully heard a case filed by India, arguing that Islamabad was in violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Rights. The case is set to come up later this year.

The Indian government reacted sharply to the latest releases from the Pakistan Army. External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay said “manufactured facts cannot alter the reality and do not detract from the fact that Pakistan is in violation of its international obligation to India and Jadhav”. He added that even the ICJ had not been informed about Jadhav’s mercy plea to the military appellate court, making its very existence doubtful.

In the video, Jadhav is seeing admitting to his alleged involvement in fomenting unrest in Balochistan, with specific portions of the 10-minute video serving almost as direct rebuttals to some of India’s arguments. For example, New Delhi has asked why their spy would be caught with an Indian passport in Pakistan, especially since many Indian analysts believe Jadhav was actually captured in Iran and taken across the border. In the video, Jadhav said he was carrying his Indian passport so he could avoid questioning on the Iran side of the border, but that he crossed over into Pakistan with the help of another operative.

Islamabad is hoping this will further shape the narrative about Jadhav, especially after it was dealt a major blow when the ICJ decided it had jurisdiction and could intervene in the case. The effect of the mercy petitions and the video claims for example, are directly intended at blunting Indian arguments and making it harder for Jadhav’s mother, who has filed an appeal against his death sentence, to pursue her case.
None of this, however, changes the fact that Pakistan continues to deny Jadhav his fundamental legal rights. These obviously targeted releases from the Pakistan Army inspire no confidence about the integrity of its legal processes. Pakistan would do well to take the cue from the ICJ and offer full consular access to Jadhav. Until then, every bit of information that Pakistan reveals about its handling of the case is only likely to make its conduct seem more suspicious.

The Big Scroll

  • Ananda V Burra writes on how India might be over-promising on what it could do in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case. 
  • What the International Court of Justice said when it stayed Jadhav’s execution in May. 

Punditry

  1. Writing in the Indian Express, Pratap Bhanu Mehta says Prime Minister Narendra Modi should use the upcoming trip to United States to widen India’s liberal and internationalist image. 
  2. In the Mint, Pranob Sen says the time has come to evolve a new model of farm loans to protect both farmers and the banks. 
  3. Dan Carden and Alex Sobel, two recently-elected Labour parliamentarians in the United Kingdom, discuss what the election results mean to the larger Left politics. 

Giggles

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TA Ameerudheen reports on how rubber plantations in north Kerala have fuelled a dengue outbreak.

“Koorachundu is a predominantly farmers’ village. Rubber is the major cash crop and the farmers made good fortunes before the prices slumped sharply in the recent years. Now rubber cultivation is not profitable and farmers have stopped collecting the latex from rubber trees. The cups that they used to collect the latex with now get filled with rain water – the perfect breeding ground for Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that transmit the dengue virus.”