Sharing some thoughts on the treatment meted out to Cdr Kulbhushan Jadhav’s wife and mother by Pakis, in what could easily have been a show of goodwill instead.
Firstly let us recount what exactly happened.
(a) Forced removal of any Hindu symbols – choori, sindoor and mangalsutra.
(b) Forced to change clothes.
(c) Glass partition, ensuring physical separation, as if they would have otherwise blown up the building
(d) Chappal Chori
(e) Forced not to converse in their mother tongue
(f) Repeated interruptions while the mother was talking to him
(g) While approaching the site, being forced to disembark before the entrance and unnecessarily walk rest of the distance (refer screenshot of @rajfortyseven tweet)
(h) Meeting commenced without presence of the Indian Deputy High Commissioner, who had to fight his way in.
(i) And the media. Who can forget the Paki media and their ‘questioning’ of the visitors? (Refer THIS tweet).
Btw, this was despite an agreement that media won’t be allowed close access to the visitors. Now comes the question, how does one view this. My TL has been abuzz with this since yesterday.
As far as my reaction goes, yes I am outraged too.
Outraged, yes.
But surprised? No.
In fact, on the contrary, I would have been (pleasantly) surprised had the Paki security establishment allowed the visit to go in a dignified manner. But that is too much to ask of them. And they didn’t disappoint me either.
Now the question is, where does this insane hostility come from. Of course, they will cry hoarse at ‘Big, Bad India’. I’ll not argue with that since they are welcome to their own point of view.
Over here I’ll just go into why the behaviour towards the two ladies
There was amazing similarity in which the establishment went about conducting the visit, and the media doing its own bit. This is an interesting phenomenon indeed – the way the Paki state brings up its children to adulthood, fed on a potent propaganda right from the word go.
But first let us see how it manifests itself. Here are some public personalities, those that are supposed to be exposed to media and experienced in handling themselves in public.
Example 1: Shahid Afridi.(WSJ Article Afridi: Indians have smaller hearts than Pakistanis)
Quote, ‘If I speak truthfully, they just can’t have the kind of heart a Muslim has or a Pakistani has. I think they don’t have the sort of big hearts, pure hearts, Allah has given us.’
Btw, this is the same Afridi one of whose cousins was dispatched by the BSF in Kashmir in 2003 (LINK)
Then there was another international cricketer, Shri Sohail Tanveer and his reasoning at not being selected for IPL in 2009 – Hinduon Ki Zehniyat Hi Aisi Hai
The small issue of Mumbai Terror Attack didn’t figure, though!
What is interesting in the above video is not merely the choice of words by Tanveer, but the wholehearted endorsement by the female anchor and the subsequent question by the journo – ‘Didn’t you know about Hindu Baniya – Muh Men Raam Raam Bagal Mein Chhuri?’
Moving on, here is a Paki comedy show where the word ‘Hindu Kutta’ not only comes out matter of factly but also elicits a wholehearted laughter from the audience
And if you think that the ‘Hindu Kutta’ thing is a one off event in a comedy show, you couldn’t be more mistaken! Late JN Dixit, during his tenure in the Indian High Commission in Pakistan was given a live demonstration, that too by a six year old child!
A kid of someone definitely high up in the Paki establishment / society.
A kid not yet old enough to make her own opinions.
A kid with her mind poisoned by her parents
We talk about madrassas as incubators of hate, right?
Here is what the state sanctioned school curriculum teaches little children in Pakistan.
These are a couple screenshots from the blog post linked above.
Last two points in the above list beg a closer scrutiny.
Point 17: Hindu has always been an enemy of Islam.
I think the previous 19 tweets have enough examples of how it manifests in the current Paki discourse. And no, it is not just a fringe that holds this point of view. Those that think so are being ostriches. It is how the Pakistani state brings up its children.
In fact, in 2004 the Information Minister of the Govt of Pakistan was forced to apologise to the religious parties in the National Assembly after the Education Minister questioned the relevance of verses glorifying Jihad in Class XI Biology textbooks! (LINK)
Coming back to the screenshots in tweet number 20 above.
Point number 16: After 1965 war India conspired with the Hindus of Bengal & succeeded in spreading hate among the Bengalis about West Pakistan and finally attacked East Pakistan in Dec 71, thus causing the breakup of East and West Pakistan.
Very cute, I must say!
Propaganda by a defeated army to still justify its relevance in national discourse is understandable. But when that propaganda becomes the national discourse itself, this is what happens.
Can one really blame this person for saying what he says? And this despite his OWN govt releasing a stamp with the figure of 93,000?
At some level, one does find sympathy for this one being brought up in an environment that hides the truth and works up the hatred inside him in order to shirk it’s own failures.
But sympathy won’t work because we are too far down the road of lies and hatred.
Here’s just one example of this dysfunctional state – An dastardly attack on school children, owned up by a local terror outfit.
But no, it was India that did it!
No introspection needed when such a convenient enemy is available.
This poster in the funeral prayer for the children says ‘The blood of children will result in fall of India, US, Israel’
Well, then, all the best to you, I say.
A word about the all powerful army that has ruled Pakistan very nearly since its inception. People tend to say, that the army is the only bastion left that is preventing a fall of a nuclear armed Pakistan into chaos.
The Brigadier in question had direct access to PM Benazir Bhutto.
Here’s a quote from the Brigadier – “We should fire at them and take out a few of their cities—Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta,” he said. “They should fire back and take Karachi and Lahore. Kill off a hundred or two hundred million people…….”
Some more on the ‘sane’ minds of the Paki Fauj. Here’s a snap of former DG ISI, Lt Gen Hamid Gul sharing a stage with Hafiz Saeed
’nuff said!
With ppl like these virtually running the country, can one really blame its common folks for their particular world view?
Everything is justified by ‘Indian Terror’.
No going into details, not questioning anyone.
One word answer – Indian Terror!
Lastly, a word about the so called Track II intellectuals.
Here is one sample. The question of “ill treatment” (note the double quotes) is easily brushed aside by ‘But India Also So Bad’.
This one justifies the humiliation of a wife and a mother by the diplomatic engagements and denial of the ‘god given right’ for Paki artists and sportspersons to make money off India and yet continue spewing venom!
Btw, @gauravcsawant‘s TL as on 27 Dec 17 has a very interesting conversation with her.
She is a ‘liberal’, by the way.
Oh, and talking about Paki artists / sportspersons, HERE is a short, 13 tweet thread on they mooching off Indian money and supporting terror inside India. Some very interesting data points in there.
Do Read
I insist again
In the end, I’ll repeat what I said earlier. Despite all their reluctance, this was a god given opportunity for the Paki establishment to come out as a bunch of pragmatic folks.
But like I said, I am not surprised that they made a complete spectacle of it instead.
Regarding Cdr Kulbhushan Jadhav, I will just repeat what I said some months ago.
This man above became immortal this day in 1947. Recounting his last day alive in this blog post.
Maj Somnath was a veteran of bitter battles in Arakan in WW2. His right arm was still in plaster due to a hockey injury.
(Photograph: Maj Somnath Sharma at Srinagar Airfield. Possibly his last photo ever)
Ignoring medical advice, he had bulldozed his way into joining his own Company as it flew into the Valley on 01 Nov 1947.
At 0800Hr on 03 Nov 1947, Maj Somnath Sharma, 4 Kumaon & Capt Ronnie Wood, 1 Kumaon reported to HQ 161 Brigade to discuss the day’s patrol pgme. Consequent to the discussions, 2 Companies of 4 Kumaon moved out on a patrol towards Badgam, followed shortly by another company of 1 Kumaon.
The Company of 1 Kumaon subsequently moved on towards Magam and thereafter returned to the airfield at about 1 pm. That done, Maj Somnath was also ordered to start thinning out. At 2pm, one Company of 4 Kumaon moved back. Maj Somnath reported that all was quiet with villagers going about their daily business.
Little did he know that there was a huge force of raiders was gathering in the vicinity, trying to skirt the Pattan route blocked by 1 Sikh. Had the 2nd Company too moved back at 2pm, route to airfield would have been unguarded.
Too bad for the enemy, it wasn’t so. At about 1430Hr, Maj Somnath reported that he was under ineffective, long range fire from ppl located in houses in Badgam Village but he wasn’t returning the fire for the fear of hurting innocent villagers.
Suddenly, a large force appeared in front. A full scale frontal attack was now underway on his location, with the Kumaonis hugely outnumbered by the enemy. The firing from the houses in Badgam had just been a distraction as the main force of raiders built up on a different flank.
A militarily brilliant plan, but for one small fact – The Kumaonis under Maj Somnath Sharma refused to play by their rules!
The tenacious Kumaonis, under their gutsy leader, dug in and refused to cede any ground to their uninvited ‘guests’. An epic battle followed, upon which would hinge the fate of the entire campaign – If the raiders captured the airfield, all would be lost and the troops ahead would be outflanked.
Upon the Kumaonis rested the fate of the Valley this day. And they rose to the occasion, ensuring that the airfield would NOT fall .. not this day, not on their watch in any case.
Maj Somnath reported that he was engaging the enemy with all he had, but he was outnumbered & enemy was gaining ground. Even as automatics and mortars rained deadly fire on them & covered the advancing enemy, Somnath rallied his boys and they fought back like men possessed, inflicting serious casualties on the raiders, losing their own too, in the process.
Soon 161 Brigade would receive his last transmission from battlefield, that would define the last stand of Maj Somnath Sharma. He radioed, “The enemy are only 50 yards from us. We are heavily outnumbered. We are under devastating fire. I shall not withdraw an inch but will fight to the last man & last round.”
Immortal last words by the Paramveer who went down shortly thereafter.
By the time the epic Battle of Badgam was over, less than 100 Kumaonis had held back nearly 700 raiders & saved the airfield. The Kumaonis lost 15 killed, including Maj Somnath Sharma and 26 wounded. One ammo truck too was looted by enemy but they failed their objective, losing many more than they killed.
This was the closest they would get to the Airfield. EVER
In evening, 1 Punjab moved double quick to take up more blocking positions to secure the airfield. Now at night, they waited. The airfield was still vulnerable. Another determined attack by the enemy, and it could still fall .. especially at night.
Yet the enemy failed to make good this opportunity of a lifetime.
Reason? Khurshid, the leader of that party was injured in the leg by a bullet. Leaderless, the Pathans dithered on further course of action.
Ironically, Maj Somnath Sharma had saved the airfield not only in the afternoon, but at night too by leaving the raiders leaderless. So much so, that on return to Karachi, Khurshid – the leader of the raiders in that battle – stated that he’d run into an entire Indian Brigade and ROUTED it, when it was just one company of less than 100 troops that he’d encountered! A few months later, he died, possibly of the same wound.
Atleast now he could reconcile the Indians’ strength with his Maker!
Maj Somnath’s body was recovered after three days, once the situation had stabilized. Disfigured beyond recognition, it was identified by the few pages of the Bhagwad Gita that he always kept in his pocket & his empty pistol holster.
He had lived, and died by the code of the warrior. And claimed for himself the first Param Vir Chakra awarded by the Nation.
(Screenshot of Maj Somnath Sharma’s PVC Citation. Source: Wikipedia)
(The story of Maj Somnath Sharma, PVC (P), telecast in the 80s in the TV series ‘Param Vir Chakra’)
God bless him and his men that fell that afternoon of 1947.
So @gauravcsawant put out this above tweet some weeks ago. Something similar had been playing on my mind too for a while. Social media as a force came into its own in the 2014 general elections. And with that come the dirty tricks associated with influencing minds.
Once again, I may be totally wrong out here, but it is a matter of what you want to believe Vs what you want to laugh away as a matter of someone’s fertile imagination. But here goes ..
I started putting default location for trends on my twitter profile as Pakistan some time ago, on a whim. What it has led to is quite a .. let me call it ‘fascinating’ observation every once in a while. The trigger was #Bihar trending in Pakistan on 08 Nov 15, soon after Bihar Assembly Election results were announced.
Interesting, no? Hashtags like #IhateIndiaBecause and such likes keep popping up out there every once in a while. But #Bihar? Yes, #Bihar, because the BJP / NDA lost and the left leaning media went into a celebratory frenzy!
What one inferred from this was (strictly my personal opinion, btw) that atleast some of the so called ‘secular’ handles were based out of Pakistan, or had in fact, ‘outsourced’ some of the outrage industry over there. The next example came soon thereafter.
Aurangzeb Road in Delhi was renamed, sparking another outrage from so called seculars. And ‘Lok Kalyan Marg’ trends in Pak!
It took a while for subsequent examples since I was no longer looking. Next one came by in August 2017. Gurmeet Ram Rahim was arrested and much of Punjab – Haryana went into a tizzy. Social Media was up in arms against the government of the day, and right on cue, #GurmeetRamRahimSingh starts trending in Pak too!
Guess, Pakis too were quite ‘concerned’ about the law and order situation inside India, apparently! Or maybe they were just adding fuel to fire in perfect sync with the ‘secular’ ecosystem out here? Your call.
Move ahead a week or so, and a journalist in Bangalore is murdered. Almost instantaneously, a call goes out in the secular media that it is the handiwork of ‘Hindu Terrorists’, some even creating fictitious Hindu groups that might have done it, and the social media world is on fire. Oh, btw ‘Gauri Lankesh’ also starts trending in Pak on 06 Sep!
Fast forward another week, and Amnesty International releases its report on use of pellet guns by Indian forces in Kashmir.
Remember pellet guns? And the ‘randi rona’ that seculars created because it was quite an effective crowd control tool to keep Pak sponsored stone pelters in check?
Well, the same randi rona started again, this time on BOTH sides of the border!
And soon #AmnestyExposesIndia was trending in Pak! Interestingly, the tweets associated were quite similar on both sides too!
Two days later came the #IHateIndiaBecause hashtag. Quite normal actually, since such juvenile hashtags keep coming up every few weeks. Except that quite a bunch of tweets were STILL about the topics mentioned earlier in this blog post.
Point is, it might just be a flight of fancy that I have posted above, but then, I thought I might as well put it out here. Generally speaking, the Leftist ‘secular’ ecosystem over here and Pakis do tend to ‘agree’ on a few matters of opinion.
Why else would a handle called Pakistan Defence be interested in a protest march for a murdered journo in Bangalore?
This screenshot, I offer without any comments.
And before I sign off on this blog post for the time being, just try and recollect the narrative on the #TerrorBoat incident in Pakistan as well as the ‘secular’ ecosystem within India.
’nuff said.
Ok, so time to add more this blog post!
What is interesting is not that Gujarat was trending earlier in the afternoon of 18 Dec 2017, but the sheer number of tweets – 284k, a figure which should have crossed 300k by now. And this in a country that only had 3.1 million twitter users last year! (source: https://geo.tv/amp/131187)
Looks like I missed this one below while blogging this post!
11 Dec 2018: A total of THREE hashtags on Assembly Elections in India trending in Pakistan this afternoon .. I wonder why! Now waiting for a new hashtag with the word ‘Modi’, ‘BJP’ or ‘RSS’ within!
04 Jan 2019: So this was trending in Pakistan today at about 2pm when the govt was replying to the opposition about their allegations on the Rafale Deal. Totally coincidental, no?
10 Jan 2019: A very ‘interesting’ trend right now .. wrt the Kartarpur Corridor. The corridor issue was always a wild herring in middle of election season in India. And they say Khalistanis have no connection with Pakis whatsoever!
Just plugging this tweet here in this blog post before moving ahead:-
14 Oct 2019: So the Prime Minister of India travels to a South Indian state for a summit with the Chinese President. And #GoBackModi tweets start greeting him. But get what, most of such tweets emanate from Pakistan!
25 Feb 2020: So Delhi sees communal violence and Voila .. the TOP THREE trends in the Land of the Pure get dedicated to that!! Now pl tell me there is no ‘moral’ support from across the borders to the instigators – both online as well as those on the streets.
26 Jan 2021: With all that happened in Delhi today, the 2nd & 3rd highest trending hashtags in Pakistan are no surprise, including the sheer numbers of tweets with them – pretty large for a country with hardly 3 million twitter users! Enemies within & enemies outside as a tag-team!
27 Jan 2021:
And it continues .. not just the hashtags, but the sheer numbers of tweets as well. Now if you tell me that it is a mere coincidence, then I have a red coloured building in Old Delhi to sell to you. Packies and Khalistanis are the two sides of the same coin. Period.
04 Feb 2021: TOP FOUR trends in Pakistan – all related to the ongoing Farm Bills ruckus.
10 Feb 1846 – A 60yr old Khalsa General, Sham Singh Attariwala donned white clothes depicting the pure attire of one devoted to death, as he rode into what he knew was his last battle. Some time earlier, he had dismissed his servants and told them to return to his village with orders to tell his family that he would not be coming home.
Mounted on his sturdy white horse,Sham Singh spurred forward at the head of his Khalsa contingent, into the ranks of the 50th Regiment of the British army facing him. The Khalsas fought like men possessed, in a battle for the future of their very lands. Ironically, Sabraon and nearby areas were the scene of another epic battle some two millennia ago when Alexander, in his lust to reach the rich lands of India, fed by life giving waters of its holy rivers, clashed with the native armies under similar circumstances.
The battle was a bloody affair. No quarters were asked for, and none were given. Grossly outnumbered, the Khalsas gave an excellent account of themselves. However, at a critical stage of battle, Misr Tej Singh fled back across the Sutlej with his men, destroying part of the bridge in his wake. Far from being disheartened by this treachery, Sham Singh, along with the last 50 of his men made a spirited charge against the advancing British army.
Needless to say, each and every one of the Khalsas were martyred. In the words of Andrews Adam, “Thus saw the Battle of Sabraon the basest treachery of all opportunists on one hand, and the shining heroism of noble patriots on the other.” Unquote.
In the evening, after the battle was over, Sikhs swam across the river and recovered Sham Singh Attariwala and his men’s bodies. The General’s mortal remains were found ‘where the dead lay thickest.’ The victors too were suitably awed by this ferocious enemy.
JD Cunninghan wrote, “Gradually each defensible position was captured & the enemy was forced towards the river; yet; although assailed from all sides, no Sikh offered to submit, and no disciple of (Guru) Gobind (Singh) asked for quarter They,everywhere, showed a front to the victors, and stalked slowly and sullenly away, while many rushed singly forth to meet assured death by contending with a multitude. The victors looked with solid wonderment upon the indomitable courage of the vanquished, and forebore to strike when the helpless and the dying frowned unavailing hatred.” Unquote.
Hugh Gough, the British commander-in-chief, under whose leadership the two Anglo-Sikh wars were fought, described Sabraon as the ”Waterloo” of India. Paying tribute to the gallantry of the Sikhs, he said: “Policy precluded me publicly recording my sentiments on the splendid gallantry of our fallen foe, or to record the acts of heroism displayed, not only individually, but almost collectively, by the Sikh sardars and the army; and I declare were it not from a deep conviction that my country’s good required the sacrifice, I could have wept to have witnessed the fearful slaughter of so devoted a body of men“. Unquote.
Lord Hardinge, who saw the action, wrote: “Few escaped; none, it may be said, surrendered. The Sikhs met their fate with the resignation which distinguishes their race” Unquote.
The Khalsas planted a standard on the battlefield that day which stands even today. Assured victory was turned into defeat by the treachery of one of our own. Else the history, and the present of this nation might have been much different. Sham Singh Attariwala was cremated at his native village on 12 Feb 1846.
Shah Mohammed immortalized Sham Singh and his men’s last stand as:
‘They squeezed the blood out of the Whites
As one squeezes juice out of a lemon
If only Ranjit Singh were there,
He would have been proud to see,
How the Khalsa wielded their swords.
Oh Shah Mohammad, without Ranjit Singh, such was our plight
We won the battles, but lost the fight.‘
Unquote
Former COAS, Gen JJ Singh pays respects to Gen Sham Singh Attariwala on his martyrdom anniversary, Amritsar, 10 Feb 2016
Punjab Police pays tributes to Gen Sham Singh on his 169th martyrdom day at India Gate, Amritsar, 2015.
So Air India ‘Kanishka’ & Talwinder Singh who played a major role in its bombing are back in news. Canada,this one will haunt you till time’s end ..
Letting out some thoughts and some facts when it came to Western nations not merely looking away at terrorism aimed at India in the 70s, 80s and the 90s, but in cases, actually encouraging it. This state sponsored terror cost us dearly then & costs us dearly even now.
70s – 90s were not very popular years for Govt of India in Western capitals. At best, they looked away when it came to matters that were detrimental to Indian interests and at worst, they actively fomented trouble within Indian borders. Primary reason was that the geopolitical interests of the US and UK were not aligned with Indian ones.
Germination and nurturing of the Khalistani terrorism was but one manifestation of this ill will. Two quick examples:-
1. After the Khalistani terrorists hijacked an Indian aircraft on 24 Aug 1984 to Lahore (5th such incident, btw), the Pakis found out that the hijacking was done with a toy pistol and in order to help them out, gave them a revolver. Then they asked the hijackers to take the plane to Dubai. Over there, the hijackers demanded that they be handed over to US authorities instead of India. However they were tricked by the Indian and UAE security agencies and brought to India. Upon investigation, it was found that the revolver was of German origin. Germany confirmed that that particular piece was part of a consignment delivered to Pak Army. This was promptly shared with the US. Unsurprisingly, the US refused to believe this due to ‘lack of evidence’, despite eyewitness accounts by the hijacked passengers having seen the revolver handed over in Lahore!
2. In second instance, Talwinder Singh Parmar, a known terrorist was arrested in West Germany in 1983 as he travelled by train from Zurich due to an Interpol lock-out notice. CBI was informed by the Germans thru the Interpol who asked for his custody for trial in cases against him in India. Germany asked for details and was info that a CBI team would be flying to Bonn with the same. However, even before the CBI team took off, the Indian consul general in Vancouver messaged that Talwinder Singh had been released and had even addressed a religious congregation in a local Gurudwara wherein he’d threatened violence against India. Upon being asked as to why they released him, the Germans claimed it was due to delay on Indian part, a patently false statement since the Indian authorities had been prompt in their actions. Talwinder Singh would get back to Canada and play a major part in the Kanishka bombing, an act for which the Canadian Govt’s role is still under a cloud.
Ok, now coming to the shameful ‘Kanishka’ episode.
Talwinder Singh Parmar had been on the run from Indian authorities since 1981 and and had found refuge in Canada. In 1982, India issued a warrant for Parmar’s arrest for six charges of murder stemming from the killing of men of Punjab Police in Ludhiana & notified Canada that he was a wanted terrorist. However, Canada refused to extradite him.
Soon thereafter, BlueStar and subsequent massacre of Sikhs in Delhi followed. The Khalistanis in Canada started plotting revenge.
In late 1984, at least two informers reported to authorities on the first abortive plot to bomb Air India Flight 182, which flew out of Montreal’s Mirabel International Airport at that time. In August 1984, the known criminal Gerry Boudreault claimed that Talwinder Parmar showed him a suitcase stuffed with $200,000, payment to plant a bomb. He refused to do so.
Then in September, in an attempt to get his sentence for theft and fraud reduced, Harmail Singh Grewal of Vancouver told the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) of the plot to bomb the flight from Montreal.
What did the Canadians do? They fcuking DISMISSED these two reports pointing to the SAME plot from two UNRELATED sources as UNRELIABLE.
Finally, in early 1985, the CSIS obtained a court order to place Parmar under surveillance for one year. On 09 June 1985, a police informer in Hamilton reported that Parmar and Bagri had visited the Malton Sikh Gurudwara, warning the faithful that “it would be unsafe” to fly Air India.
The CSIS / RCMP couldn’t have asked for any more red flags pointing towards a plot to bomb an Air India flight out of Canada. But nope, nothing was done.
Ultimately, the Kanishka (pictured above) would get blown apart near Ireland, taking 329 souls with it, at the hands of terrorists based out of Canada, with bombs assembled in Canada. 268 of the victims were Canadian citizens.
What followed was an investigation that still continues to this day in some respects, uncovering utter incompetence on part of Canadian authorities at best, and wilful / malicious oversight at worst.
Much has been written about that, so I’ll cover only some basic, glaring lacunae.
As has been mentioned earlier, Parmar was under surveillance since early 1985. Late in the afternoon of June 4, 1985, CSIS surveillance teams followed Parmar’s maroon car as he drove to pick up his friend Inderjit Singh Reyat from his home in Duncan. From Reyat’s home, three men, one of whom has never been identified, drove to a clearing in the woods around the town. CSIS agents Larry Lowe &Lynne Jarrett soon heard a loud blast.
It was the terrorists testing the detonation system for the bombs. The agents reported it as a shotgun blast.
Then happened the most incredible thing in this entire dirty saga .. On 16 Jun 1985, surveillance over Parmar was lifted!
This was the time when preparations for the bombing would’ve been at their peak!
Funny, no?
Esp since this blast was NOT the only sign of trouble.
But it gets even more ‘funnier’.
Apparently, James Bartleman, then Director General of the Intelligence & Security Bureau of the CSIS External Affairs Division, told the Air India Commission that he had seen secret info which “indicated that Flight 182 would be targeted.”
Now intelligence cannot get any more pointed than this. But when he brought this same info to the notice of an RCMP official, Bartleman testified that ‘he was met with a hostile reception’.
Mind you, he was a DG in the CSIS!
And then we are to believe it was mere inter agency turf wars at play!
Sorry, I refuse to believe that. Just as I suspect, the 329 departed souls would refuse too.
What is even more glaring is that based on Indian agencies’ inputs, on 01 Jun 1985 Air India’s Mumbai office sent a telex message to the airline’s offices worldwide warning of “the likelihood of sabotage attempts being undertaken by Sikh extremists by placing time/delay devices, etc., in the aircraft or registered baggage.”
Air India’s Montréal office passed on the information to the RCMP.
A good, professional agency would have reconciled it with inputs it already had, and upped its vigil. But then it was the RCMP. They chose to not only NOT forward the input to CSIS, but not even to THEIR OWN internal dept responsible for preparing threat assessments.
The RCMP were already aware of possible plots to target Air India aircraft, yet they dismissed even this input from Air India itself as a ‘ploy’ by the national carrier of a third world, commie aligned nation (remember, Afghan ‘Jihad’ was then underway) to secure additional security FOR FREE!
To be charitable, I’ll say the RCMP were not an intentional party to this terror attack, but merely, as Justice John Major of Canadian Supreme Court said, “Time and again in the Air India investigation, RCMP came down on the side of skepticism based on a superficial assessment of credibility, which led them to dismiss info long before its truth could reasonably be assessed”.
But this ‘incompetence’ carried on even after the attack actually happened.
Once again, not going into the nitty gritties of the trial as such. Just listing out a couple of facts over here.
In his verdict, Justice Josephson cited “unacceptable negligence” by CSIS when hundreds of wiretaps of the suspects were destroyed. Of the 210 wiretaps that were recorded during the months before and after the bombing, 156 were erased. Amazingly, nay, ‘Funnily’, these tapes continued to be erased even after the terrorists had become the primary suspects in the bombing! Because the original wiretap records were erased, they were inadmissible as evidence in court. In a lame excuse,CSIS claimed the wiretap recordings contained no relevant information, but an RCMP memo states that “There is a strong likelihood that had CSIS retained the tapes between March and August 1985, that a successful prosecution of at least some of principals in both bombings could have been undertaken.”
Then there was the case of Tara Singh Hayer, the publisher of the Indo-Canadian Times & a member of the Order of British Columbia who gave an affidavit to the RCMP in 1995 that he was present during a conversation in which Bagri admitted his involvement in the bombings. Hayer was, however, shot dead in 1998 in Surrey, consequent to which his affidavit was inadmissible as evidence in court.
Ok, so this was in England – another ‘stronghold’ of Khalistanis. But in Canada itself, many refused to testify since the Canadian Govt couldn’t provide sufficient guarantees of their safety, of two witnesses, one cited memory loss in refusing to testify, and another was forced to enter the Witness Protection Program two years earlier than planned, due to the RCMP’s ‘inadvertent‘ disclosure of her identity.
So professional of them, no?
But the ‘funny’ doesn’t end here. Justice John Major noted in amazement as to how could the RCMP not share the telex from Air India with the CSIS.
On the contrary, RCMP provided erroneous information to former Ontario Premier Bob Rae during his 2005 investigation.
Yup.
The RCMP didn’t lie or hide facts. They merely provided ‘erroneous’ information!
This was not the only part of the aviation security lapses by the Canadian law enforcement agencies, Justice Major stated. He referred to one summer employee, Brian Simpson, who ‘boarded Flight 182 at Pearson International Airport in Toronto without detection on the afternoon of June 22, 1985’ and this person ‘had complete access to the aircraft from the cockpit to the equipment at the rear.’
Tragic?
NO.
The saddest part to Major was that during testimonies the ‘government counsel’ tried ‘to discredit this witness.’ Simpson’s evidence, he said, ‘revealed numerous weaknesses in security.’ I think I’ve said enough. Time to stop now, since my blood is still boiling at this wilful murder.
Yes, that’s how I look at it – Wilful.
Wilful, because it could have easily been prevented. Wilful, because the perps could easily have been convicted. Wilful, because petty egos, masquerading as ‘turf wars’ caused the loss of 329 souls.
At the most charitable, I’ll say it was an ‘innocent oversight’ that nurtured, and continues to nurture anti India terrorists over Canadian soil.
At the opposite end, someone can just as easily call out Canada for willfully nurturing them for their own reasons. How else can a visa denial to an ex CRPF officer over assumed human rights abuses be justified? (LINK)
Btw, the Canadian Govt was forced to apologize for this act by an employee of theirs. Fair enough, but it does show the mindset nurtured over decades, just coming to the foreground – Selective Amnesia, I’d say.
And it is only getting more and more mainstream each passing day.
I’ll sign off on this blog post with what I said in my first paragraph – Canada, this will haunt you till time’s end.
Continued fromPART 1, published some weeks ago. Didn’t realize then that there would be so much new ‘content’ so soon. Anyhow, here’s chronicling the same ..
Cow -> Buffalo -> Ox It’s alleged MAGIC .. #NDTV Style!! (Then there is the quintessential ‘alleged’ too!)
At times when th ‘alleged’ key on keyboards is stuck due to overuse, ‘single quotes’ come handy ‘Molested’ & Molested – guess the difference. And it has absolutely NOTHING to do with anyone’s political leanings!
Offered without comments, except for just one word in single quotes – ‘SECULARISM’
Internationally Renowned reputation when it comes to gaffe’s .. oops .. ‘editorial oversights’ of #NDTV!
You know what, GOI can save a TON of money by disbanding its intel agencies & relying on #NDTV instead! (Oh, and the Supreme Court too! (ref Nidhi’s Video in Part 1 of this blog post!)
‘Technically’, #NDTV is correct. Factually too. That said, folks, this is the very PINNACLE of ‘secular’ reporting, don’t you think?
To be fair, they did use the ‘T’ word subsequently. That said, my heart goes out to the poor ‘members’ of this ‘exclusive club’ that found themselves on the wrong end of the stick!
‘Reputations’ are built not on a one off event, but on ‘consistency’ .. THIS is where the good folks at #NDTV trump everyone else!
Yet another piece of a genuine editorial error from the #NDTV stables .. damn those ‘innocent’ mistakes!
Talking about ‘secularism’, internationally so .. #NDTV style!
Uncanny resemblance, no?
So PROUD .. and deservedly so After all, which other news channel has the ‘distinction’ of airing such a ‘World Premiere’, hain?
‘Innocent’ wordplay? Or is it ‘brilliant’ editorship? Why does it seem to me that someone is NOT happy with the wisdom of the courts ..
Just another day in office .. spreading secularism et al!
Oh, and in case you wonder what a mirror looks like, just check out the responses to this tweet. ’nuff said! Haters gonna hate .. our courage of conviction stays strong .. WE DON’T RUN FAKE NEWS!
(PS: Pl ignore the 1000+ replies to this tweet!)
Talking about ‘mirrors’, here’s another classic!
Btw, on a VERY serious note, #NDTV, you aren’t just secular, but so sexist too!
Fact Checking? Ye kis chidiya ka naam hai, hain ji? (LINK)
Wondering why @republic on a thread ‘dedicated’ to #NDTV? Well, there’s only one way to find out – CLICK on it – LINK!
Folks, we don’t have details right now. But if it is a lynching, it HAS to be beef related. Take our word for it! We’ll apologize later!
Double Standards? Ye kis chidiya ka naam hai, hainji?? We at #NDTV have only ONE standard!
Another innocent mistake .. I’m sure the good folks at #NDTV must be very very sorry for talking about the PM’s samadhi
They had SOOO MANY details on the incident, except for the fact that he was a Police Officer. Not even AFTER the JKP tweeted about it.
Pakis and Separatists refer to Anantnag in South Kashmir as Islamabad. . . . Oh, and #NDTV too
Recycling is good for the environment .. THAT’S why we do it, even with old, unrelated visuals!
Step 1: ‘Create’ fake news .. that too in the thick of election season.
Step 2: Apologize
Step 3: Move on!
Even Prashant Bhushan has apologized and issued a clarification. Yet this report keeps insinuating something that is factually incorrect
Who needs fact-checking when you can simply apologize later on!!
Ah, when decline in growth RATE become decline in growth! And then they take offence to the word ‘AGENDA’!
So this above tweet landed up on my TL yesterday. Prompted me to share some thoughts on the recent spate of statements from Pakistan, threatening pre-emptive use of tactical nukes against Indian forces even as they might be in their barracks / staging areas. Here goes.
Firstly regarding the preferred delivery mode – the Nasr missile. With a diameter of just about 30cm,I find it laughable that Pakistan actually has a working bomb of such dimensions. I may be wrong out here, but would be willing to hedge my bets on this account due to the fact that they’ve not tested since 1998, and are working at best, on unproven designs.
Secondly, despite a stated first use policy, they’ve been silent on what constitutes their red lines. In case of a stand-off that might play out on lines of Op Parakram, wherein strike elements actually moved in close to borders, a pre-emptive use by a panicked field commander might lead to a bloody war instead.
Thirdly, in case a Pakistan justifies a pre-emptive strike on account of a threat in being of an Indian attack, can the same premise – an imminent nuclear strike, as proclaimed by Pak – not be used as a premise for a ‘pre-emptive retaliatory strike’ by India, as part of its NFU doctrine?
Fourthly, if Pakistan Army truly believes that even a dozen sub kiloton nukes can actually stop the might of Indian strike forces, they are going to be in for a rude shock. They know it too. And if they don’t, well @bennedose explains it quite well in this video below
That brings us to the next question – ‘What Next?’
Stated Indian Nuclear Doctrine doesn’t differentiate between tactical nukes or any other type of nukes. Massive retaliation is the response that will visit them soon thereafter. Given a military machine which has such strong survival instincts that it is not beyond sacrificing its own pimps in AfPak & elsewhere, or even disown its own soldiers in Kargil, to expect Pak Army to risk its very existence is a fallacy.
Lastly and most importantly, is the reqmt of making the sponsors of Pak nuclear pgme pay in case nukes gifted by them to Pak (Ref Lop Nor, May 1983 – Para 14 here: http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/pakistan/nuke.htm…). Here’s a screenshot from that, even though the entire report is a highly recommended read:-
Nothing fancy, but just an ‘innocent’ statement to this effect by one of the many semi-govt ‘loudmouths’ in reply to such statements from Pak would surely raise hackles in a LOT of world capitals. Given blatant nuclear proliferation in arming their cat’s paw, they too deserve ‘some’ anxiety atleast, given that India is forced to live with a nuclear armed mad man at its doors.
Talking about ‘Cat’s Paws’, had put out a BLOG post some days back about China engaging Indian security apparatus by its hired lackeys. May have a look.
But coming back to the topic at hand, once we have atleast a half dozen or so Arihant class boats prowling the seas with an assured second/third strike package, perhaps then the nuke benefactors will feel some bit of ‘anxiety’ that I talked about earlier.
Bottomline – Nuclear sabre rattling is just like riding a tiger. Nukes are NOT to be used in a war, unless it is the ‘very last’ war this world sees. Don’t do it. Tomorrow a rabid, brainwashed population may not leave you with a way out. Then you will have no where to hide.
Period.
(Talking about ‘brainwashed population’, THIS three part blog series chronicles some interesting facts).
On the first anniversary of the #UriAttack, replugging some thoughts I tweeted last year, a day after the attack. Glad to note that many things turned out as hoped!
Here goes..
Firstly, what happened and how it happened is well known by now. Will not dwell upon that. One thing that can be safely said without fear of contradiction is that the attack in itself was nothing new. Terror attacks on army camps have happened before at a number of locations, including Uri (Remember Lt Col Sankalp Kumar?). What makes this attack ‘different’ is the sheer numbers of fatal and non fatal casualties. Let me go out on a limb here. I say this magnitude of damage wasn’t anticipated by the terror handlers in Rawalpindi. It is this which is a potential game changer.
I bet there are anxious khakis in Pindi waiting for how India will react now, esp given the PM’s Independence Day speech in which he raised a ‘sensitive’ issue, Balochistan, and the days thereafter wherein there seems a concerted campaign to name and shame Pakistan for its state sponsored terror. IMO, the govt will HAVE to react to this provocation ‘differently’ than similar ones in past. There seems no other way. When and how that retaliation happens needs to be seen.
There already exists a precedent wherein after the massive casualties in Manipur last year, the Govt took a few days to prepare and retaliated with a massive blow in the form of the Special Forces raid in Myanmar. I still remember some Paki handles tweeting something like ‘Pakistan is not Myanmar’ or such likes.
Will come to that in a while.
Right now, the issue at hand is whether the Govt will react or not. I guess that is a call for the Govt of the day to take. What follows is the options I see are available. In a nutshell, let us say there are 2 options: military and non military.
Talking about the non military ones first, these may take form of a string of dossiers as done after 26/11, or a speech in the UN, or not resuming the already suspended dialogue process for a bit longer. All have been tried time and again, with the same result -failure. The one single reason is that we want others to do what is essentially our own job. No one in the world has any love lost for any Indian lives lost. Not until we put a heavy price on each and every Indian life ourselves. THAT is the bottom-line.
This is not to say that diplomacy doesn’t matter. It does. Just as it did in 1971 and Kargil. But at those times, it was backed with the full might of the Indian military machine. THAT is what clicked then and not in 26/11 – the military option. This current ‘lull’ after Kargil is perhaps the longest we’ve been without a military confrontation with Pak.
What this seems to have led to is a mindset which, originally defensive, has become even more so. Covert retaliation et al seem to be the answer of choice lately, but what we are forgetting is that we are playing into the enemy’s strength by doing this, even as our strength – Military Might – remains idle and unacknowledged.
Yes, I use the phrase ‘Military Might’ because it is exactly what it is when facing Pakistan. For all the issues of equipment etc flogged daily on social media, fact is that even in its present state, the Indian Army will prevail over the Khakis across the border with ease. With ease indeed, given the overwhelming superiority in the air that will come to bear in sync with the grunts on ground who must already be raring to have a go. Now add to this the relative strengths of the navies and you’ll understand why Paki Army have tried to keep the levels of provocation below the perceived Indian threshold – a ‘war avoidance’ strategy, if you will.
They know that for all the bombast and swag, they don’t stand a chance. And given what they’ve consistently fed their population, if push comes to shove, their nakedness will be exposed to the very population that they have ruled for practically all of last 69 years.
Coming back to the current day. Retribution HAS to follow, there is no doubt about that. However, IMO, it should also be SEEN as having been visited upon the perpetrators. And the perpetrator is not a Hafiz Saeed / Masood Azhar. It is the Khakis sitting in Rawalpindi that planned it, and those immediately across the LC from Uri that executed it. I wouldn’t mind a bit if they are flattened with some help from the heavens above. Killing the terrorists that came in isn’t enough. They are in numbers unimaginable, a practically endless stream. Pain needs to be visited upon those who control the tap – Remember the taped conversation of Musharraf during Kargil – ‘Inki tooti hamare haath mein hai’?
They don’t have the b@lls to fight man to man, and sadly, we oblige them by being reactive and restricted to own side of the borders. It is time to change this state of affairs.
I understand that this chain of thoughts, or rant, call it what you will, is asking for an emotive response when our forte has been a rational one. Even in case of Myanmar, it took a few days to put things in place before the raid went in, but the point is, being rational hasn’t had much effect wrt Pakistan. It takes 2 hands to clap, with just one hand, all you can do is slap the other fellow. I feel it is time to change the rules a bit. Let it be India that is ‘irrational’ for a change, that is if you consider a legitimate military response to this provocation, irrational. Mind you, the Indian soldier is down, but not out. He still has a LOT of fight in him, despite the losses. Instead of losing fine young men merely on this side of the border, let the enemy too get an opportunity for the same.
Unlike what some #Presstitutes said yesterday, being a soldier is not a suicidal job. Yes, you may lose your life, but that is a known risk. It is deaths like the ones that came visiting to the boys in Uri yesterday that hurt. In the long run, a military confrontation is the ONLY way to arrive at a lasting solution, given that it is the Paki Army that runs the show, regardless of the democratically elected govt in power.
As for the idiotic calls for people to people contacts and Pakis artists etc, remember, they make money in India off you and me, go back and pay taxes in Pakistan, enabling their govt to foment terror back in India. I tweeted my thoughts on that some days ago. MUST have a look and let me know if I am wrong, here’s the LINK to that.
To sum up, status quo as of now is they provoke, we react in a predictable manner. I say, break this pattern. Let us be the irrational ones for a change. Let us bring our strengths to bear, instead of playing to the enemy’s strengths.
JMTs
(One year later, today I am somewhat glad to note the way things have turned out to be. Surgical Strikes across the LoC were exactly the kind of ‘public’ response one had hoped for and the recent shifting of gears with respect to operations inside the Valley. Fact remains, however, that the Khakis across the border STILL remain comfortable in Pindi. Hope that changes too. Soon)
Came across THIS tweet above some time yesterday and got thinking .. Can we really be ‘CHINDIA’?
After all our ‘history’, the question sure seems interesting!
Of course, the fact that I recently re-started this book does help a bit!
Just sharing some thoughts, still somewhat disjointed. But here goes!
I’ll set the tone by paraphrasing a Hindi saying. ‘There can NEVER be two swords in a single scabbard’. I started tweeting on 29 Jan 12. THIS tweet below was amongst my first few, on 12 Feb 2012.
The one thing about the Cold War was that the two major powers were separated by an ocean or two, and a number of buffer states in Europe. However, another ‘not so major’ power, China shared a land border with the USSR and another ‘not so major power’, India. And guess what happened across those borders in 1962, 1967 and 1969!
All this while the major powers were fighting each other too, though not directly. Proxies did the dirty job, even where atleast ONE of the superpowers was involved – Cuba, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Korea .. the works. But USSR & US troops never faced each other directly.
Flash back to 1962 and 1967. What happened on the battlefields is mentioned here in THIS Blog Post from some days ago. The one thing that the PLA (hopefully) learnt that the Indian soldier was no pushover. A fact that was only reinforced in 1987 at Sumdorong Chu when they were stared down, just as it happened 3 decades later at Doklam. The PLA knew that a shooting match with the IA will be VERY costly.
However, something happened in 1963 that gave the Chinese, an army for hire .. a fanatic army at that, with one single ambition – to show ‘Hindu’ India its place. And it came at not much cost. Heck, they even kowtowed, offering a strategic piece of land too, the Shaksgam Valley!
The Pakis had found their ‘Higher than Himalaya’, ‘Deeper than Deepest Ocean’, ‘Sweeter Than Honey’ (the list of a$$ licking platitudes continues to grow still) benefactor. A benefactor that knew no scruples. All it needed was a (pin)prick that could keep a potential rival – India – engaged away from the LAC.
And the Pakis revelled in this ‘job’. They were simply ‘Made of It’!
The Hans too did their bit. The Chinese too made a big show of ‘helping’ their ‘friends’. In 1965, they made a HUGE show that fizzled out.
In 1971, Tikka Khan’s rapist army in East Pakistan was fed on false hope till the very end that the Chinese are coming! None came, though. Their job was done – Indian Army was fighting AWAY from the LAC! But things somewhat changed thereafter. With Bhutto promising a 1000yr war with India & pledging to even eat grass in his quest for nukes, the Han overlords were only too happy to oblige!
Such was the benevolence that they even invited the then Paki Foreign Minister to ‘witness’ a nuclear test at Lop Nor in May 1983. Mind you, this was NOT a case of nuke proliferation. Or was it? Will talk about it at a later day.
But SURPRISE .. the Pakis soon ‘hinted’ about the ‘nuclear option’ during Brasstacks just a few years later!!
Mere coincidence? Your call! (This LINK might help)
But the topic I intend to cover here is not nuke proliferation. Instead I wish to talk about Missile proliferation from China to Pakistan. Indian IGMDP was launched in 1983. With the experience of a decent space pgme atleast 2 decades old, the missile pgme saw the Prithvi launched in 1988 & the Agni in 1989.
Suddenly, out of the blue, the Pakis ‘magically’ came up with a missile pgme of their own! The Hatf 1 magically appeared in 1989, tested and inducted! Soon followed by Shaheen, Ghauri, Babar series of missiles!
This from a country that STILL does not manufacture even a decent car of its own. But it’s military hardware production is supposedly all indigenous! Magic, no? Yup. Magic indeed, If u discount the fact that Chinese entities were in fact, under sanctions at about the same time for exporting M-9 & M-11 missiles to Pakistan. The reports available online are very candid with details. Here’s an EXAMPLE
China being under international pressure, the proliferation in the second half of the 90s was ‘outsourced’ to Pyongyang! So much so that Benazir Bhutto herself acted as a conduit while on one of her short, fauj approved stints as the Paki PM! Of course, the ‘pinnacle’ was reached in 1999, when North Korea was caught shipping an entire assembly blueprint + hardware of missile assembly line, when the Captain of the ship docked at Kandla Port looking to make an easy buck on the side! (LINK: On North Korean Freighter, a Hidden Missile Factory)
Another giveaway is the apparently 100% success rate of Paki missile tests!
A test of a ‘new’ missile out of the blue and the same is declared an instant success, with the missile being inducted into the Pak Army inventory! Yes, ppl are simply amazed at this level of technological ‘advancement’ of KRL!
Unless of course, failed missiles end up in Iran! (LINK)
100% successes are possible only because failures have been outsourced to China/North Korea.
Bottomline: China has played a smart game by outsourcing the fight against its principle regional adversary to an all to willing proxy, something that we either cannot, or refuse to see.
(Photo: Pakistani and Chinese Border Guards – Hand in Hand!)
Chanakya’s soul mAust surely be mightily agitated at seeing our passive acquiescence at this wanton disregard to our national security. And what have we to show for it?
Zilch!
Things are slowly changing lately, but the opportunities lost are simply mind boggling. Vietnam still awaits the Brahmos, even after many years of first asking for it. Prithvis are not even being considered for export!
Today, even Bangalore is in the range of Chinese missiles based out of Pakistan, and here we are, still abiding by the rules like ‘good boys’! This when China blatantly disregarded each and every treaty / commitment to play merry hell with our security! Prithvis / Brahmos on Vietnamese / Taiwanese soil will do for us exactly what China has achieved – force your adversary to look behind his back.
So yes, coming back to where it all started from. Chindia ain’t gonna happen!
Not till they keep arming proxies.
Not till they continue to be on our borders by occupying Tibet.
India and China is a civilizational conflict. Period.
It stayed dormant till the Hans came calling in Lhasa in 1950. It will continue to be active till such time they continue to be in occupation of Tibet. Like I said in the beginning – ‘Ek Myaan Mein Do Talwar’
Harpreet's Blog 