India has criticized Pakistan for the atmosphere in which former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav was allowed to meet his mother and wife across a glass wall on Dec. 25. The atmosphere “was intimidating insofar as family members were concerned,” according to the statement released by the Ministry of External Affairs on Dec. 26.
The statement said that Pakistani press was allowed on multiple occasions to approach the family members and heckle them. The women were forced to remove their mangal sutras, bangles and bindi, and change their attire “that was not warranted by security.”
Jadhav’s mother was prevented from speaking in their mother tongue, although this was clearly the natural medium of communication. “She was repeatedly interrupted while doing so and eventually prevented from proceeding further in this regard,” the statement added.
Jadhav, who Pakistan claims was arrested in Balochistan, met wife Chetna and mother Avanti across a glass wall at the foreign ministry office in Islamabad on Dec. 25, the birthday of Pakistan’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah. The two were accompanied by JP Singh, the Deputy High Commissioner of India, but the latter was not allowed to speak to Jadhav.
The official statement said that Singh was separated from the family members and was only allowed to join them “after pressing the matter with concerned officials. Even then, he was kept behind an additional partition that did not allow him access to the meeting as agreed.”
Jadhav’s wife’s shoes were not returned to her “for some inexplicable reason,” the statement pointed out, adding, “We would caution against any mischievous intent in this regard.”
Jadhav “was under considerable stress and speaking in an atmosphere of coercion. Most of his remarks were clearly tutored and designed to perpetuate the false narrative of his alleged activities in Pakistan. His appearance also raises questions of his health and well being,” the statement said.
India said that the “manner in which the meeting was conducted and its aftermath was clearly an attempt to bolster a false and unsubstantiated narrative of Jadhav’s alleged activities.”
Statement on Shri Kulbhushan Jadhav’s meeting with his family. https://t.co/rAVB5t6klQ
— Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) December 26, 2017
The meeting was emotional and full of tears. They were allowed to speak through a telephone while physical contact was barred by a glass wall. Jadhav’s mother did most of the talking while his wife broke down a few times during the 40-minute meeting, according to the Indian Express. Jadhav’s family met him for the first time since he was arrested in March 2016, which India says happened in Iran.
Indians, including politicians, have been sharing their outrage on social media over the fact that the family was barred from getting close to the businessman. Many have raised questions over the use of English by the 47-year-old Jadhav, and not his mother tongue Marathi, even while speaking to his mother.
“It was as if he was making scripted comments…,” senior advocate Harish Salve, who presented India’s case at the at the International Court of Justice, said in an interview to Republic TV news channel. “The language that he spoke. Usually, when a man is emotional or angry, he speaks and abuses in his mother tongue. Here, he spoke in English. Why did he speak in English?”
Isn’t it odd that Kulbhushan Jadhav spoke in Marathi with his mother when he was arrested, and now he is speaking in English with her? Harish Salve, India’s Counsel at ICJ #FreeJadhav
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) December 25, 2017
Shocking that Kulbhushan Jadhav was not allowed to speak in his mother tongue to his mother in Islamabad. Jadhav spoke scripted answers provided by Pakistan Army in English. How low will Pakistan stoop? I can’t imagine what his mother would be going through. #IndiaForJadhav
— Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) December 25, 2017
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor called the way in which the meeting was conducted deeply unsatisfactory. “From the point of view of the family, the fact that both the mother and the wife were able to visit him was a good thing. But they could not touch him, hold him or hug him and they were able to see him only through a glass partition,” he said, ANI reported. “I think that was emotional but especially painful for them, since the man is officially been sentenced to death. They may never see them alive again. In that sense, it was very disappointingly unhumanitarian spirit in which it was conducted.”
Concerns are also being raised about the physical and mental well-being of Jadhav in Pakistan jail.
Jadhav’s mental well-being is a matter of concern, says India’s ICJ counsel Harish Salve
Live: https://t.co/4fqxBVUizL#IndiaFirst pic.twitter.com/57UjCrvoeQ— India Today (@IndiaToday) December 25, 2017
The spokesperson of Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Mohammad Faisal, earlier tweeted the photo of Jadhav’s mother and wife, saying, “We honor our commitments.”
Jadhav’s case is sub-judice in the International Court of Justice, which also put a stay on a death penalty handed to him by a court in Pakistan. Jadhav was arrested on March 3, 2016, and was sentenced to death by a Pakistani court on charges of espionage and terrorism.
Pakistan has to portray itself fair and humanitarian in front of the international court before its next hearing, according to security experts from India. Some also see it as a way in which Pakistan is showing its intention to open dialogue.
Pakistan also released a medical report of Jadhav, saying he was in “an excellent healthy condition (sic)”. The report was signed by a German doctor of a Dubai-based hospital, the date was handwritten and it wasn’t revealed where the examination took place, according to the Times of India. The report added that Jadhav’s BMI (body mass index) was ideal for his height.
Meeting between Commander Kulbushan Jhadev & his family in progress pic.twitter.com/THG925V1fO
— Dr Mohammad Faisal (@ForeignOfficePk) December 25, 2017
“It is a tactical gesture by the Pakistan government before the next hearing at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which is hearing the case. Islamabad can argue in the ICJ that they are treating the case from the humanitarian points of view,” Suman Sharma, a New Delhi-based foreign affairs expert, told Arab News.
Another Indian foreign affairs expert, Dr. Zakir Husain of the Indian Council of World Affairs, a New Delhi-based think tank, told Arab News, “The larger point of this meeting is more than humanitarian. Pakistan is sending a signal that it is willing to break the ice with India and hold talks with its eastern neighbor.”