Indian reaction to Yadhav sentencing

Kulbhushan Yadhav, an Indian saboteur and spy, has been sentenced to death by the Field General Court Martial. This is no surprise as it was expected; Yadhav was not only a spy but was also involved in masterminding terrorist activities in the country, especially in Balochistan and Karachi. He admitted that “…I have been directing various activities in Balochistan and Karachi at the behest of RAW and deteriorating law and order situation in Karachi. My purpose was to hold meetings with Baloch insurgents and carry out activities with their collaboration. These activities have been of criminal nature, leading to killing of or maiming of Pakistani citizens.” This is just tip of the iceberg.

It has been proven beyond doubt that Yadhav and his network sponsored and directed a series of terrorist attacks, including IEDs and grenade assaults in Gwadar and Turbat, attack on the radar station and civilian boats at the Jiwani port, bombing of gas pipelines and electric pylons in Sibi and Sui areas in Balochistan, an IED explosion in Quetta in 2015, attacks on Hazaras in Quetta and Zaireen en route to and back from Iran. 

But the Indian reaction to the sentence has been rather undignified and amateurish. The death sentence awarded to Yadhav sparked an immediate outcry in India that raised questions about the transparency of the trial. It even called the court marital of the RAW agent as ‘premeditated murder’. It seems the Indian ministers and media are bordering on panic on the issue. Threats, both veiled and overt, have been made against Pakistan if the death sentence is carried out. 

Four assertions can be made following the Indian reaction.

First, the Indian government was not ready for the death sentence and how it should react to it. Therefore, instead of dealing with the issue rationally and calmly as demanded by international norms, it immediately got panicky and started throwing threats at Pakistan.

The guilt was largely written into the Indian reaction.  

Second, the Indian government has been unable to put up a strong defence of Yadhav in the local media following or before the death sentence.

It has been unable to explain what the Indian spy/ saboteur was doing in Pakistan in the first place. What was the serving naval Indian officer, arrested red-handed by law-enforcement agencies while infiltrating into Pakistan from the Saravan border area of Balochistan with Iran, doing deep inside Pakistan? Why Kulbhushan was using a fake identity impersonating as a Muslim? Why would an innocent man possess two passports, one with a Hindu name and another with a Muslim name? And there are other key questions that have the Indian media and population baffled.

Third, the case of Yadhav is linked to the Indian obsession of destablising Pakistan, especially Balochistan and Karachi. The Indian interference in Balochistan is not hidden from anyone.

One clearly remembers what the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said in his speech last year. Did he not mention Balochistan in his India’s Independence Day speech? What about the foreign based leader of a Karachi party recently appealing to the Indian prime minister for interference? The Indian ‘Karachi connection’ is now well known.

Fourth, the issue for the Modi Sarkar is rather political than substantial. What the Indian government is really concerned about is getting political mileage from the issue than getting Yadhav’s life spared. Yadhav is a pawn as far as the BJP and its obnoxious Hindutva agenda are concerned. The emotional statements flowing from India have more to do with gaining public sympathy than defending the un-defendable spy.

Finally, it can be said that Yadhav’s chapter is coming to an end. And to a large extent so has the violence in Pakistan's Balochistan province and Karachi.