Kulbhushan:The Epicenter of War of Narratives

Pakistan' s Position on Kulbhushan Jhadav :

Kulbhushan Jhadav was arrested in March 2016 from Mushkal area of Baluchistan, Pakistan when he orchestrated to meet Baloch militants of Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA).Probably he was betrayed and apprehended by security forces of Pakistan.

When he was taken into custody he had two identities. One was Kulbhushan Jhadav,the name he was recruited to Indian Army with in 1987. Later he joined Research Analysis Wing (RAW) as Commander Indian Navy. He also had held a passport with another name Hussain Mubarak Patel , found during his detention.

He was not only an agent of Research Analysis Wing (RAW) and naval officer but a despicable tool to fuel anti-state elements and terrorist attacks to sabotage national security of Pakistan. He was in direct contact with Alok Joshi ,the Ex-Head of RAW  and Ajeet Doval National Security Adviser of India.

This was the position Pakistan maintained in it's Military courts and International Court of Justice.

Indian Stance on Kulbhusan Jhadav:

India has taken a peculiar position and claims that ,his name is not Kulbhushan Jhadav but Hussain Mubarak Patel, an Indian Muslim citizen and a retired naval officer who was running his company Kaminda Trading' in Chabahar, Iran that used to deal with imports and exports.

He was abducted by Pakistani intelligence apparatus from Iran. Indian Media at times claimed ,that he was trapped and picked up by Taliban from Afghanistan and handed over to Pakistan. India maintained in International Court of Justice, that Pakistan is using this case for grand standing as it did not allow him consular access. Had he been given consular access from the beginning , his conviction would never be possible.

Moreover Pakistan Military courts lack formal requirements of judiciary. Hence his military court trial was unfair.

Trial at International Court of Justice (ICJ) :

On 10 April 2017, Jadhav was sentenced to death by a Field General in Pakistan.

In May 2017, India approached the International Court of Justice(ICJ), asserting that Pakistani authorities are denying India it's right of consular access to Jadhav in violation of the Vienna Convention. The ICJ proceedings began in Hague on 15 May 2017 to review the case.

On 18 May 2017, the International Court of Justice stayed the execution pending till the final judgement on the case.

On 17 July , the court rejected India's appeal for Jadhav's release and ordered Pakistan to suspend the execution. It ruled that Pakistan will have to review the entire process of trial and conviction of Kulbhushan Jadhav and provide India with consular access.Pakistan granted consular access to India, once. However subsequent request were blocked.

India was advocated by Harish Salve and Pakistan's narrative was presented in International Court of Justice (ICJ) by Barrister Khawar Qureshi.

The first argument Pakistan put forward was about the retirement and pension record of Jhadav. Pakistan dispatched a letter to India in 2017,inquiring about his naval pension and retirement record which India failed to produce. Barrister Khawar Qureshi also asserted that ,"he could show his pay slip of 2016".The pay slip was probably retrieved from Indian record by Pakistan's intelligence.

Pakistan presented names of 13 top Indian echelons in a sealed envelope to ICJ who helped Yadhav to operate covertly in Pakistan. Alok Joshi ,the Ex-Head of RAW  and Ajeet Doval National Security Adviser of India were among them.

Pakistan questioned about the two identities of Yadhav. Quraishi inquired, " If he is Kulbhushan Jhadav how he became Hussain Mubarak Patel ? How the passport with name Hussain Mubarak was issued twice and renewed ? How he crossed Indian Immigration system 17 times ? If he was picked up from Iran, Did India lodge a formal and legal FIR in Iran regarding his abduction ? Did India discuss this issue when Hassan Rohani of Iran visited India in February 2018 ?

Why Kulbhushan Jhadav is Important to Pakistan and India ?

Kulbhushan Jhadav manifests the war of narratives between two South Asian powers. Since 1990s Indian Establishment ,media and government invested capital to isolate Pakistan by building and promoting a narrative that ,Pakistan has been patronizing militancy ,terrorism and chaos. Pakistan is a failed state having cultivated civil-military bureaucracy, crippled governance and weak institutions.

Furthermore Pakistan intelligence wing used to execute organized operations through Jihadi outfits against India and neighboring countries. The very narrative has been sold across the world. International media outlets are often seen proponents of the narrative. Therefore news ,documentaries ,movies are made to revamp and beef up this narrative to malign Pakistan on International arena. Pakistan being placed in grey list of Financial Action Task Force is also one of results of the notorious stance.

The counter narrative of Pakistan is that ,India has been striving hard to destabilize Pakistan in Balochistan ,FATA and Gilgit-Baltistan through Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA) ,Taliban and her proxies within Pakistan.

Pakistan could not succeed to present  it's narrative well-enough before Kulbhushan's apprehension. After his detention he turned out to be an imperative asset for Pakistan to build it's narrative before the world big powers. Pakistan has been using him for war of narratives. Therefore India wants to kill it so it took the case to ICJ that even bore fruit for Pakistan because the world started knowing India has been operating strategically against Pakistan. The story has been published in various western media outlets that created an opportunity for Pakistan to revamp it's narrative.

Plausible Deniability:

It refers to circumstances where it is possible to deny knowledge or responsibility of wrongdoing since the subject was unaware of the truth or due to a lack of evidence to confirm responsibility for an action. In most of the cases around the world ,the agents (spies) have element of plausible deniability. In Jhadav's case the element of Plausible deniability does not exist. Therefore India got stuck in quagmire and exposed.

Latest Development in Kulbhushan Jhadav's Case:

Unimpeded and uninterrupted Consular access has been to Kulbhusan Jhadav at Pakistan Foreign Office Islamabad for the second time for three hours. An agreement was also reached to file a review petition in Supreme Court of Pakistan challenging his execution in Pakistan, that was due before July 19,2020